;mm 



mm 



mM 




f ibrani of (Koiu^xt^^, 

^/«^. . .S 4 O.,.-? 

=^5r./^ I.O.4.. 

uSeFstates^ofameeicaT 



OUTLINES 



FIRST COURSE 



YALE AGRICULTDRAL LECTURES. 



BY 

HENRY S. OLCOTT. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

JOHN A. PORTER, 

PROFESSOR OP ORGANIC CHKMISTRT AT YALE COLLEGE. 



■\-;>- 



N-EW YORK: 

C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO., 

26 PARK ROW. 



Entoroil According to Act of Congress in the ycnr 18G0, by 

C . M . S A X T N , BARKER & CO., 

In tho Clerk's Oflico of the District Court of the Uuiteil States for tho Southen District of 

New York. 



EDWARD O. JENKINS, 

iDrintrr A- Stfrrotijpfr, 
No. 2C Fn.vNKFouT Stueet. 



^ 






PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



■rHESE sketches of the lectures which were given during the 
recent Convention nt Yale College, were first printed in the 
columns of the New York Tribune, Occurring as it did when 
there was an unusual pressure upon the columns of the j^aper, 
the Convention would never have been reported at all if the 
editors had not regarded with great favor this attempt to im- 
jirove the condition of our Agricultural science. Anxious to 
lend the powerful aid of the Tribune to further the object in 
view, they allotted a sufficient space daily for a succinct outline 
of the lectures throughout the entire course. So much valua- 
ble information was embraced in the several discourses, that 
to the reporter it was a matter of great difficulty to select as 
little as Avould fill the space at his disposal ; and the readers of 
this pamphlet will not, therefore, wonder if he has not done 
full justice to either the topics or the lectures. When the 
course was almost completed frequent inquiries were made as 
to whether any complete report of it would be published ; and 
by many a desire was expressed that if nothing more detailed 
and elaborate could be done, at least these Tribune sketches 
should be collected in book form, for convenience of preserva- 
tion. It being established beyond doubt that no full publica- 
tion could, for various reasons, be made, the publishers of this 
volume have made arrangements with Mr. Olcott to edit and 
correct his notes. To render them as nearly perfect as their 
brevity permits, they have been submitted for revision to the 
lecturers themselves, and may, therefore, be considered as at 
least fair summaries of the matter delivered by them from the 
lecture-desk. 



LECTURES 



GIVEN DURING THE 



AGRICULTURAL CONYENTIOK AT NEW HAYEN, 

PEBRTTARY, I860. 



ITRST WEEK.— AGRICTJLTUIIAL CHEMISTEY, &c. 

AGRICULTUKAL CHEMISTRY, Prof. S. W. JOHNSON. 

Lecture 1. Composition of the Plant. Tho Orgauic Elements — Oxygen, Nitrogen, Hydro- 
gen, and Carbon. Lec. 2. Proximate Orgauic Principles of the Plant — Cellulose, Starch, 
Dextrine, Sugar, Gluten, Albumen, Casein, Vegetable Oils, and Acids. Lec. 3. Atmospheric 
Food of Plants — Water, Carbonic Acid, Ammonia, and Nitric Acid. Their sources and supply. 
Lec. 4. The Ash of Plants — Potash, Soda, Lime, Magnesia, Oxyd of Iron, Oxyd of Manganese, 
Chlorine, Sulphur, Phosphorus. 

ENTOMOLOGY, Dr. ASA FITCH. 

LEcniRE 1, Groat losses sustained from depredating insects — their classification, structure, 
metamorphoses, habits, and means of destruction. Lec. 2. Insects injurious to grain crops, 
with a particular account of the wheat midge and Hessian fly. Ij^ic. 8. Insects injurious to 
fruit-trees, with a particular account of the Curculio and the Apple-Tree Borer. 

VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY, DANIEL C. EATON, Esq. 

Lecttre 1. The vegetable cell — its form, size, structure, contents, origin, and mode of 
growth. Lec. 2. The seed, root, and stem. Nature and growth of seeds. Structure of 
roots. General structure and minute anatomy of stems. Lkc. 3. Arrangement of leaves — 
their parts, forms, structure, and economy. Food of plants. Relations of the vegetable 
kingdom. Lec. 4. Flowers and Fruits. Arrangement of Flowei's — their parts and offices of 
parts ; development of fruit. 

VEGEH'ABLE PATHOLOGY, CHAUNCEY E. GOODRICH. 

SECOND WEEK.-POMOLOGY, &c. 

PEAR CULTURE, Hon. MARSHALL P. WILDER. 

American Pomology— the best method of promoting it ; with practical suggestions on the 
cultivation of the pear. 

GRAPES, Ik. C.W.GRANT. 

Lecture 1. Preparation of the soil, and propagation of the vine. Lec. 2. Culture of 
native varieties, with an account of different varieties and their qualities. Lec. S. Foreign 
varieties ; culture and treatment. 
(4) 



CONTENTS. 5 

BERRIES, R. G. PARDEE, Esq. 

Lectctre 1. strawberries, Raspberries, and Blackberries — soil, cultivation, varieties. Leo. 
2. Currants, Gooseberries, Cranberries, and Whortleberries — soil, cultivation, varieties. 

FRUIT-TREES , P. BARRY, Esq. 

Lectuke 1. Propagation and treatment of Fruit-Trees in the Nursery. Lec. 2. Transplant- 
ing and management of Trees in the orchard and garden. 

FRUITS, LEWIS F. ALLEN, Esq. 

Lectures 1 and 2. The Apple. Lec. 3. Uses of Fruits economically considered ; profits as 
farm crops ; their consumption as food for man ; as food for stock ; value for exportation. 

ARBORICULTURE, GEO. B. EMERSON, Esq. 

Lecture 1. Character of various Forest Trees, as found growing in the forests of Europe 
and America. Value for various purposes. Forest culture. Lbo. 2. Shade and Ornamental 
Trees ; modes of cultivation. 

THE HONEY-BEE, MR. QUINBY. 

AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, cmiinu&i, Peof. S. W. JOHNSON. 

Lecture 5. The soil ; its chemical and physical character. Lec. 6. The mechanical im- 
provement of the soil by tillage, fallow, and amendments. Leg. 7. The Chemical and Me- 
chanical improvement of the soil by manures. Lec. 8. The conversion of Vegetable into 
Animal produce. The Chemistry and Physiology of Feeding. 

THIRD WEEK.— AGEICULTUKE PEOPER. 

DRAINAGE Hon. HENRY F. FRENCH. 

LECTtTRE 1. The sources of moisture. What lands require drainage. Drainage more 
necessary in America than in England. Lec. 2. Various methods of Drainage. Direction, 
distance, depth, and arrangement of Drains. Leg. 3. Effects of Drainage. Drainage pro- 
motes pulverization, warmth, absorption of fertilizing substances from the air. Leo. 4. 
Over-drainage ; obstruction of drains ; remedies ; effects of drainage on streams and rivers. 

GRASSES, JOHN STANTON GOULD, Esq. 

Lecture 1. Amount and value of the grass crop. The great increase practicable ; de- 
struction of the Grasses ; obstacles to profitable culture. Leg. 2. Classification and descrip- 
tion of Grasses. Leg 3. On the principles of laying down and seeding meadows and pas. 
tures. Leg. 4. On irrigation and drainage of meadows. 

CEREALS, JOSEPH HARRIS, ESQ. 

On the cultivation of Wheat and Indian Corn. 

ROOT CROPS, T. S. GOLD, Esq. 

The field Turnip, Ruta Baga, Beet, Carrot, Parsnip — varieties, soil, culture, composition, 
uses. Root culture essential to high farming. Preservation and feeding of roots. 

TOBACCO AND HOPS, Prof. WM. H. BREWER. 

Lecture 1. Range of Cultivation ; preparation of soil ; care of plants ; gathering and 
curing ; advantages and disadvantages of cultivation. Lec. 2. Hops, ditto. 



6 CONTENTS. 

SANDY SOILS, LEVI BARTLETT, Esq. 

On the cultivation of Winter Wheat, and the management of sandy and other light soils 

ENGLISH AGRICULTURE, LUTHER H. TUCKER, Esq. 

Lecture 1. Causes of its preeminence. An outline of the chief improvements accom- 
plished. Lec. 2. Examples of English Farming ; High Farming ; visits to great Dairy 
establishments ; remarkable results of Irrigation. Leo. 3. The Agricultural Shows of '59. 
Improvement of Stocli. Lessons of English Agriculture. 

PROFITS OF AMERICAN FARMING, Hon. JOSUH QUINCY, Jr. 



FOtJETH WEEK.-DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

CATTLE, CASSIUS M. CLAY, Esq. 

Lecttike 1. On the five leading breeds, with notice of some other varieties. Lec, 2. Breed- 
ing as an Art. 

STOCK BREEDING IN THE UNITED STATES, LEWIS F. ALLEN, Esq. 

Lecttre 1. Cattle, Sheep, Pigs ; their various breeds ; adaptation to climate, soil, and pur- 
pose. Lec. 2. Best methods of breeding, physiologically considered. Present condition of 
stock breeding and rearing in the United States, as compared with some portions of Europe. 
Lec. 3. Poultrj', economically and aesthetically considered ; varieties, as adapted to climate 
and locality ; utility and markets. 

THE DAIRY, CHARLES L. FLINT, EfeQ. 

Lecture 1. Breeds and Breeding of Stock with special reference to the Dairy. Leo. 2. 
The management and economy of the Dairy. 

HORSES,... SANTORD HOWARD, Esq. 

Characteristics of Breeds, and Breeding for special purposes. 

BREAKING AND TRAINING HORSES, Dr. DANIEL F. GLTXIVER. 

On the methods of subduing and educating the Horse. The Baucher and Rarey systems. 
Great enhancement of intrinsic and market value of Horses by these means. 

SHEEP, T. S. GOLD, Esq. 

Lecture 1. History and description of the various breeds ; localities and uses to which 
they are adapted. Leg. 2. Winter, Spring and Summer management of Sheep. Diseases. 
Adaptation of our country to Sheep raising. Comparative advantages of Sheep husbandry. 
Care and sale of wool. 

AGRICULTURAL ASSOCUTIONS, MASON C. WELD, Esq. 

Organization and uses of Agricultural Societies and ^larmors' dubs. 



INTEODUCTION. 



BY PROFESSOR JOHN A. PORTER. 

The views of Agricultural Education in which the Course 
of Lectures originated — reports of which are here presented to 
the public — were set forth in the Neio JEnglander, for Novem- 
ber, 1859. From that article we make a few quotations, as 
introductory to a sketch of the course itself, and of the advan- 
tages which may be expected from a pursuance of this system 
of agricultural education : 

" There is little question in the public mind as to the impor- 
tance of new agencies for the diffusion of agricultural knowl- 
edge. A more difficult question is, how the lack of them 
shall be supplied. The Press does much, but by no means all 
that is required. The contact of man with man, and of mind 
with mind, is necessary to inspire the enthusiasm which is 
essential to rapid progress. 

" The introduction of books on elementary science into our 
Common Schools, would be a great step in advance ; but here 
again there is the absence of that contact of the man of knowl- 
edge with the men who need it, which is essential to the 
highest success. 

" Shall we wait for the establishment by Government of 
great agricultural institutions, similar to those of continental 
Europe ? Such institutions are among the most obvious and 
essential wants of our time, but a pubUc and general opinion of 
their utility and necessity must be created before either our 

(7) 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

State or National Governments will seriously consider their 
establishment. Shall we await the results of private enterprise 
or beneficence in the creation of agricultural institutions, with 
their model farms and costly apparatus of instruction, and their 
corps of professors, exclusively devoted to the business of in- 
struction ? For these also we should have long to wait, not so 
much because of the Avant of liberality among those who have 
the means to endow such institutions, as for the lack of a clear 
conviction as yet of their utility, and the really practical charac- 
ter of the information they would supply. 

" It has seemed to us that this problem of a more perfect dit- 
fuvsion of knowledge on agricultural subjects, is capable of 
another solution than that which consists in devising means for 
obtaining governmental appropriations, or awaiting the munifi- 
cence of individuals. 

" In the attempts which have hitherto been made in this direc- 
tion, too exclusive reliance has been imj^osed, as it seems to us, 
on purely professional instruction ; and it has been wrongly as- 
sumed that it is necessary to await the gradual production of 
a class of men qualified to impart it. No necessity exists, as 
we believe, to await the creation or production of anything 
that does not now exist, for the accomplishment of this great 
work. The material is at hand. We have undifiused knowl- 
edge among us in every department of agriculture and horti- 
culture, and of science applied to cultivation, as minute and 
profound as exists anywhere on the face of the earth. 

" In accordance with this view, the solution which we pro- 
pose is the enlistment of practical men, who are not professional 
teachers, in the loork of instruction, and their combination 
in such members, that a small contribution of time and labor 
from each shall make a sufficient aggregate to meet the object 
in view. The special necessity for such a system, in the case 
of the pursuit we are considering, grows out of the fact that 
there is much in agriculture which has not, as yet, taken the 
form of Science, and can only be acquired from practical men. 



INTRODUCTION. Sl 

"We are all familiar with the immense results accomplished 
by combinations of capital in commercial enterprise, in bank- 
ing, in railroad projects, in manufacturing. The combination 
which is practicable in agriculture is of another kind — the 
association of intelligence and knowledge in the work of in- 
struction, for the indirect attainment of great results in this 
most important of all fields of human labor. 

"To realize such association of knowledge we would, then, 
assemble from the farm, the garden, the nursery, the vineyard, 
and from the ranks of science, gentlemen distinguished for 
their skill in the various specialties of agriculture — practical 
and theoretic, — and call on them to make each his contribution 
to the work of instruction. And then we would summon the 
intelligent and enterprising farmers of the country, young and 
old, to gather and learn from the most highly qualified among 
tlieir own number, the secrets of their success. We would 
propose that such aggregations of knowledge, as have been 
suggested, should be made at as many difierent points in the 
country as the available material would wai'rant, and that the 
instruction they would furnish should be adaj^ted as exactly as 
possible, in time and extent, to the circumstances of our agri- 
cultural population. 

" Such gatherings would partake of the character of the 
agricultural convention, on the one hand, in which experienced 
cultivators meet for their mutual enlightenment ; and on the 
other hand, of the agricultural college, within whose walls the 
less experienced assemble to take advantage of the deliberations 
of the former, and to listen also to their formal instruction." 

The experiment proposed as above, in ISTovember last, has 
since been made under the auspices of the Yale Scientific 
School. Before proceeding with our sketch of it, a few words 
may be appropriate with regard to the Institution which has 
undertaken to carry out this scheme of Agricultural Educa- 
tion. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

The Yale Scientific School, is the Scientific Department of 
Yale College, sustaining the same relation to the parent insti- 
tution as the schools of Law, Medicine, and Divinity. Its 
Faculty consists of seven Professors of the following hranches, 
viz. : — Civil Engineering, Industrial Physics and Mechanics, 
Geology and Mineralogy, Metallurgy, General and Aj^plied 
Chemistry, Organic Chemistry and Agricultural Chemistiy. 
Its course of study extends through two years. The Engineer- 
ing Department has recently instituted a third year's course of 
higher studies, and the new degree of Civil Engineer. Within 
a few months the school will enter upon the occupancy of a 
new and commodious building recently erected for its accom- 
modation, at an expense of forty thousand dollars, by a friend 
of the Institution. This building contains, beside its laborato- 
ries, recitation rooms and lecture halls, ample accommodations 
for an extensive agricultural museum, A handsome fund for 
this esi")ecial object is already accumulated, and will be largely 
increased and in part expended during the present summer. 
This movement, although subserving completely the objects of 
the winter course on Agriculture, has by no means exclusive 
reference to this course, but is to be regarded as a develoi^ment 
of the joermanent Agricultural Department of the Institution 
which remains in session during the whole year. 

The new building not being completed as was anticipated, 
the late course was given in a public hall in the city of New 
Haven. The lectures were commenced on the first day of Feb- 
ruary, and on the twenty-fourth day of that month were brought 
to a close. Twenty-six gentlemen, distinguished in various 
specialties of agriculture, participated directly in the work of 
instruction, and not less than five hundred persons were attract- 
ed to the city of New Haven during its progress. Three or 
four lectures were given each day, and the time not thus occu- 
pied was devoted to inquiries on the part of the nudience, and 
to discussions thus suggested. These discussions, in which 
other gentlemen of experience besides the lecturers took an 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

active part, proved to be the most valuable part of the pro- 
ceedings of this convention. 

We proceed to a few remarks, suggested by the experience 
of the late course, as to the kind and degree of benefit which 
may be expected from similar conventions in the future. 

In the first j^lace, it is obvious that their usefulness is to be 
found by no means exclusively or even princij^ally, in the nov- 
elties in agricultural science or practice which are likely to be 
presented in the lectures. Every important discovery in agri- 
culture finds its way, of necessity, into the agricultural journals, 
and through the newspaper press becomes the jjroperty of the 
country. In addition to this, every important subject on agri- 
culture or horticulture is presented in books especially devoted 
to the purpose, which the cultivator may study at his leisure 
without the necessity of leaving his home. These facts might 
seem at first view to do away with all necessity for such gath- 
erings. They do not influence us, however, to hesitate in the 
least in declaring them among the most efiicient means in ex- 
istence for promoting agricultural progress. 

On the benefits to the experienced cultivator it is unneces- 
sary to dwell. Agricultural, horticultural, and stock-breeding 
conventions have come to be common and j^opular, and it is 
already established by experience that they subserve many im- 
portant purposes which arc unattainable by other means. The 
statement of numerous individual experiences in such a conven- 
tion, will frequently show in an hour on which side the balance 
of testimony lies, and so decide in a brief session questions 
which have been the subject of a newspaper Avar of months. 
A brisk fire, of questions will often annihilate, in a few minutes, 
the carefully guarded statement which has served as the pro- 
tection of some cherished error, and so expose, by a single at- 
tack, the fatally weak point of some plausible theory, which 
might have been perpetuated iji print for years. 

Often, also, out of a chaos of seemingly inconsistent testimony 
there will crystallize by the aggregation of individual experi- 



12 INTEODUCTION. 

ences a really valuable result, which would never have been 
attained but by the free interchange of o2:)inions, which is only 
possible when men meet face to face. 

Of the advantage of such conventions to tlie comparatively 
inexperienced cultivator, we shall speak with somewhat more 
of detail. 

In the first place, attendance upon them necessitates the ab- 
solute and xmdisturbed appropriation of a certain definite time 
to the acquisition of agricultural knowledge. At home the 
time would not have been found ; at the convention it is secured. 
The young farmer who is at the trouble and expense of going 
abroad for a month for the purpose of study, feels that it is his 
sole business for the session to learn, as it is on the farm to work. 
This consideration is an argument of itself almost sufficient for 
such gatherings. A convention of merest tyros in agriculture, 
without teachers to instruct or guide them, would of itself be 
a valuable institution, if only for the definite allotment of time 
to the busmess of study. Assembled with such advantages, 
of instruction the time secured for such an object ensures the 
most important results. 

A second advantage of such conventions is the influence of 
the living teacher. This, in the case of persons who are with- 
out the mental discipline furnished by a course of severe study, 
is an advantage which cannot well be over-estimated. The 
young man who will gape in the chimney-corner over an agri- 
cultural volume, will listen with intense interest to the very 
same matter from the lips of an earnest speaker. And the en- 
thusiasm of the teacher will infuse a j)ermanent vitality into the 
principles he communicates, which will make them living and 
efficient agencies in the mind of the pupil, instead of mere dead 
acts accumulated and laid away for a future use which is never 
realized. \_. 

To illustrate by a particular case, we venture to say that the 
four lectures on Drainage, given by Judge French, during the 
recent course, did more to make an im2:>ression on the minds 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

of the young farmers who heard tliera, and more to ensure at- 
tention to this important means of agricultural improvement, 
than all the essays on the subject which they had ever perused. 
And the same principle might be illustrated by many other 
lectures of the course. 

A third advantage of such conventions is to be found in the 
illustration of the subjects presented by specimens and exj^eri- 
ments, by drawings and models, and by living plants and ani- 
mals. This is an incalculable advantage which the private 
library and the home study cannot furnish, and Avhich places 
this mode of instruction for detiniteness of information immeas- 
urably above all others. Mr. Barry whittling at his pear-tree 
before the audience, is worth a whole treatise on grafting and 
pruning. Mr. Gold's discourse on sheep, interspersed with the 
bleatings of his Cotswolds, and punctuated with the black noses 
of his Southdowns, is worth a volume on mutton and wool. 

Still another advantage of such gatherings is to be found in 
the opportunity they afford to the pupil of eliciting from his 
instructors knowledge especially adapted to his own particu- 
lar case. Books are dumb to such inquiries, and even the elab- 
orate treatise often leaves unnoticed the particular point which 
is essential, in order to give the rest value for any particular 
locality. It is for this reason, as befoi'e stated, that the inquiries, 
replies, and discussions which are regarded as essential fea- 
tures of this method of education, are also its most efficient 
agencies of instruction. These are by no means confined to 
the lecture-room. During such a convention every hotel and 
boarding-house is the locality of an agricultural club, which is 
in session during the whole of the twenty-four hours not de- 
voted to the jDublic meetings and to sleep. 

Finally, we remark, that the mere contact with men of great 
experience and high success in agriculture, is stimulating and 
inspiring to the young agriculturist as no mere shadow of their 
personality in print can possibly be. They stand before him as 
living illustrations of the great results of fortune and of reputa- 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

tion which may be achieved by energy and enterprise in this 
noble field of labor. They encourage him also by the impression 
which their personal presence will not lail to make, that these 
results are not a consequence of great intellectual superiority, 
of freedom from doubts and difficulties, and of mysterious 
insight into the processes of nature, but of quiet and persistent 
labor, to which he also is equal, of science which he can attain- 
and of enterprise which he himself can rival. 

If any one has been disposed to inquire whether the news- 
l^aper reports of the proceedings of such a convention do not 
furnish a large part of the advantage which would be derived 
from attending its lectures and deliberations, the reply which 
we are disposed to make to such an inquiry will already have 
been inferred. While serving perfectly its purpose of giving 
to the public a general idea of the proceedings of an Agricul- 
tural Convention, the ne\vspa|jer can furnish at best, consistently 
with its other offices, but a small fraction of the matter of the 
mere lectures of such a course. Should it furnish all, it would 
supply but the mere skeleton of their value to which the life and 
blood of inquiry and discussion and special application, and 
the electricity of personal influence and enthusiasm, would be 
wanting. Detailed reports, which should record the total pro- 
ceedings, including inquiries, replies, and discussions, are out 
of the question, from the space they would occupy and the 
expense they would involve. But if practicable, they would 
be destitute of all the peculiar advantages which have been 
rehearsed as belonging to the system. These are to be found, 
if we may be allowed here to recapitulate, in the appropria- 
tion of a definite period to the work of study, in the substitu- 
tion of oral for written instruction, in the facilities afforded for 
special inquiries, in the opportunities furnished of obtaining 
valuable knowledge in private conversation, in the personal 
influence of the instructor, in the intercourse with eminent cul- 
tivators, and in the complete illustration to the eye of every 
subject which is presented to the mind. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

In relation to the present reports, although they are far from 
needing any apology, it is but justice to the reporter to say 
that they were made during the hurry of a convention, six to 
eight hours of whose time were occupied every day with jiublic 
meetings, and under a pressure of material which compelled 
him to make selection his object, rather than completeness. 
In justice to the lecturers, it is proper to say they are not to 
be held responsible for any inaccuracies of statement which 
may possibly have crept into the reports, or for the occasional 
inadequate presentation of their discourses. This was often 
necessitated by the pressure of other matter on the columns of 
the i^aper for which the reports were prepared. A few omis- 
sions which occurred, from the same cause, have been supplied 
from other journals, at the suggestion of the writer of this 
introduction. One of the gentlemen who took part in the 
course, regarding it as entirely impracticable to give brief 
reports any practical value, has requested that his lecture should 
be omitted in this publication. His wishes have been respected 
by the publishers. 

Let the enterprising farmer, who would attach his sons to 
the calling to which he has devoted his own life, and put them 
on the road to success in their pursuit, beware of the false 
economy which is disposed to reason that an agricultural paper 
once a week, or a report of a convention once a year, is all that 
is necessary to eifect this important object. Let him give his 
children the advantage of association with the men whose 
example dignifies and elevates his calling, and demonstrates it 
as noble a road to fortune and to happiness as any that nature 
or art has opened. Let him insure for them, by contact with 
such men, somewhat of the zeal and enthusiasm and knowledge 
which has been the secret of their success, and the efficient 
instrument of their advancement. Thus only can so important 
an object be realized. 

Let it not be imagined that in this attempt to set forth some 
of the advantages of the .system of Agricultur-al Education here 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

presented, there is the least design to depreciate any one of 
the manifold agencies in operation for the accomplishment of 
the same great object of agricultural impi'ovement. Of these, 
perhnps the Press is the most important, and the one Avith 
whose influence we could least afford to dispense in the pro- 
motion of this (,'ause. But the Press scatters material a large 
part of which is lost, for the want of leading principles in the 
minds of its readers which such a system would best furnish, 
and according to which its countless facts might be arranged. 
The nucleus of knowledge and enthusiasm once created by 
such a method of instruction, it would attach to itself these 
floating fragments of experience and observation, and, like the 
growing crystal, build them up into its own substance, and 
make them part of its own life. 

The Farmers' Club is a most efficient agency, but it is often 
a dead and cumbrous heap for want of the fire which might be 
kindled from such a flame. The Agricultural Fair is a most 
potent instrument of progress, but, without some system of 
agricultural education behind it, is a mere confusing chaos of 
illustrations, comparatively worthless, as the chemist's expuri- 
ments would be without his explanations, for lack of the knowl- 
edge of the great principles to be illustrated. All of these 
agencies have contributed to make jDossible the introduction 
of such a system of agricultural education as is here discussed. 
The system once in operation would react upon these earlier 
agencies, and give them increased vigor and efficiency. 

The Convention and course of lectures recently concluded, 
was so far successful as to justify the announcement of its repe- 
tion in February, 1861. It is regarded, however, as important 
chiefly as having furnished the\means of determining how such 
a course may be made most usefuLand attractive in the future. 
While retaining, therefore, in the Course of '61, the fundamen- 
tal idea of this system of Agricultural Education, viz., that of 
the combined College and Convention, the second course will 
be carried out with various modifications which have been 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

suggested by the experience which has now been obtained. 
It will be entered upon with vastly increased means of success, 
in buildings, collections, and other apparatus of instruction, and 
also in the wide spread interest which the past course has 
awakened. Undertaken with such advantages, it will be of 
especial interest as determining, once for all, the practicability 
of sustaining such a course of instruction. To this end, an 
amount of patronage at least two-fold, and probably three- 
fold that which the late course obtained, is essential, even on 
the basis of extremely moderate compensation to the lecturers. 
Whether this can be secured our experiment of next winter 
will determine. 



THE 



YALE AGRICULTURAL 

LECTURES, 



FIRST DAY.— Feb. 1, 1860. 

While the friends of an improved agriculture have been for 
many years advocating this or that reform, and to this day 
are dolefully wailing over the torpid state of farm science, and 
praying that something might be done to popularize it, Professor 
Porter of Yale College, with admirable boldness, has conceived 
and commenced this first course of Agricultural Lectures at 
Yale College. He very wisely thought that the man of knowl- 
edge should be brought in direct contact with the men who 
need it, the skilled farmer come face to face with the imskilled, 
and that, by choosing a number of men, eminent in the sevei*al 
branches of agriculture, to succeed each other in a course of 
lectui'es, our farmers' sons, by sparing a fortnight or month in 
Avinter, and coming to one central point, would get more in- 
formation of value to themselves than if they pored over books 
for a whole year. He plainly saw that if we were to wait for 
such Governmental aid and comfort to Agricultural Colleges 
as is given in Europe, he and we all might grow grey and die be- 
fore our hopes were half realized ; and no more feasible plan 
suggesting itself, he bethought himself, to use his own language, 
of " the enlistment of practical men, who are not professional 
teachers, in the work of instruction, and their combination in 

(1.9') 



20 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

such numbers that a small contribution of time and labor from 
each shall make a sufficient aggregate to meet the object in 
view." You will understand, then, that mainly to Professor 
Porter, and not to Yale College, the honor of originating this 
plan is due. Yale has done something for scientific agriculture 
since about the year 1848, wlien a Professorship was partially 
endowed for the late Prof John Pitkin Norton, who had la- 
bored some time with Johnston in England. Norton died in 
1852, much regretted, after having done as much as he could 
to make his department useful and popular, and was immedi- 
ately succeeded by Prof J. A. Porter, who was called from 
Brown UniA^ersity. Porter's incumbency lasted five years, 
when he accepted the Chair of Organic Chemistry, resigning 
his own place to a rising young man, Samuel W. Johnson. 
Mr. Johnson had studied two years in the Scientific School 
here, and then went to Germany, where he Avorked in Leipsic 
a year, in Erdmann's laboratory, and an equal time with the 
great Liebig, at Munich, beside making visits to various labor- 
atories and schools in Germany, England, and elsewhere. 
Since he took his Chair at Yale, he has held the office of Chem- 
ist to the State Agricultural Society, and made some notable 
analyses of muck and phosphates, the latter of which have oc- 
casioned much controversy. 

He opened the course this morning with an elementary lec- 
ture on agriculture, confining his remarks to the organic ele- 
ments of the plant, and explaining their nature and properties 
by the usual experiments. 

Three lectures are to be given daily (except Saturdays and 
Mondays, when there will be but two,) until the 25th of this 
month. The morning lecture, is at 11 ; the afternoon, at 3, and 
the evening one at 7 o'clock. -^ 

The 3 o'clock lecture to-day was \)j Mr. Daniel C. Eaton. 
an amateur botanist of this city, who has, I am told, a very ex- 
tensive herbarium, and has given many years of stiidy to his 
specialty. His lecture to-day treated of the vegetable cell — 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 21 

its form, size, structure, contents, origin, and mode of growth. 
The vegetable cell, he says, is a closed vessel like an egg, and 
is composed of an outer solid membrane which contains a fluid, 
and matter floating in the fluid, or attached to the sides. At 
first the enclosing membrane is very delicate, and is called a 
utricle ; if this remains closed throughout its life, it is called 
" a cell ;" if the sides of several adjoining cells disappear, and 
the series is arranged into a tube, it becomes "a vessel." Cells 
are the base of all vegetation. The red snow-plant, and the 
yeast-plant, are single cells. The snow-plant, so graphically 
described by Kane and other Arctic explorers, is one cell, with 
little particles floating within. These particles become cells 
themselves, in time, and the outer coat bursting, lets them 
escape to commence an individual existence themselves. Cells 
vary in form in difierent plants, and even in the same plant 
they, by overcrowding here and loosening there, get distorted 
in shape. In the stems of water-lilies some of the cells are 
star-shaped, while in the wood of trees they are long and pipe- 
like. The diameter of cells averages from l-1200th of an inch, 
up to l-250th ; but the common puff-ball of our pastures, when 
broken, spirts out a fine brown powder, each particle of which 
is a cell, or spore as it is termed, of infinitesimal diameter. 

The membranous wall of cells is of difierent toughness. In 
the sea-weed, it is very soft ; in ash, hickory, and mahogany, 
very hard ; and in vegetable ivory, harder still. Cell membrane 
never dissolves in water, but swells. It is called " cellulose," 
and is composed of oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, chemically 
written thus : C. 12 ; O. 10 ; H. 10. The spaces between the 
cells of a plant are filled variously : — sometimes with air ; in the 
common red cedar, with minute grains of red aromatic rosin ; 
in sumac, with a thick milky sap ; and in other plants, with 
gums. The contents also of cells vary. The growing cells of 
some plants, as asparagus, are more nutritious, because they 
contain some nitrogen, which goes toward making muscle in 
the animal body. A granular matter, a viscid fluid, sap (which 



22 YALE AGP.ICULTURAL LECTURES. 

is almost water but contains sugar sometimes,) and the green 
leaf-color, known as chloroiDhyll, are also contained in the cell. 
Starch, too, is sometimes there, and each grain of it is organ- 
ized, and so organized for each plant that the source of a 
specimen of starch may often be revealed by microscopic exam- 
ination. Potatoes store up starch in enormous quantities for 
the use of the next yeai-'s seed-ball ; but we, thieves that we 
are, carry off storehouse, contents and all for our own use. 

In cells there are acids sometimes ; malic is made by the ap- 
ple, citric by the lemon, and other kinds by others. Starch is 
insoluble in water, and cannot, therefore, circulate through the 
plant ; but sugar can, and dextrine, which is in its nature 
somewhat intermediate between sugar and starch. There are 
two grand divisions in the plant world — the flowering and 
the flowerless. The former have elongated cells, as well as 
short ones, but the simpler of the latter class have not. The 
distinction is not now recognized as universal, although it has 
been until recently. 

I learn that a friend to Yale College is about to make it a 
magnificent donation in the shape of a building for its Scien- 
tific School, The main building is about fifty feet square, and 
has two wings of equal dimensions, in one of which is to be 
the Agricultural Museum, in the other a fine laboratory. The 
first and second floors of the main building are assigned to the 
Engineering School, the third to a lecture hall. 



SECOND DAY.— Feb. 2, 1860. 

Dr. Asa Fitch, of New York, gave last evening his lecture 
on " Economical Entomology," oHnjurious insects. The Tem- 
ple, where this convention sits, was about half filled, and the 
lecturer was frequently applauded. Dr. Fitch labors in a field 
of science vastly important to farmers, but vei-y poorly under- 
stood. As he very justly remarked last evening, the devasta- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 23 

tions by insects are not noticed, because so insidiously made, 
but if our eyes could but be opened to the activity of our little 
foes, consternation would seize us. Go into our forests and we 
see every portion of our trees attacked by some insect — trunk, 
bark, leaves, and roots, all having their peculiar depredators. 
The sweeping away of our forests compels the insects Avhich 
formerly fed upon them to turn to the orchards, which have 
replaced the forests. Thus we have the apple-tree borer, which' 
originally subsisted in the wild tliorn-apple ; and the Buprestis, 
from the oak ; and from jjresent indications it is probable we 
shall hereafter see the branches of our apple-trees lo^Dped off 
as are the limbs of the common red oak in particular years, and 
by the same insect, the " oak-pruuer." But in addition to these 
native sj)ecies, quite a number of foreign insects have been 
imported in the thoitsand commodities, and in the numberless 
trees and plants which we import, and these have proved the 
most pernicious foes to our crops and trees. Our crops and 
climate favoring their development, they multiply to a frightful 
extent, and do far greater damage here than they did in Europe. 
The bark louse, for instance, on both sides of Lake Michigan, 
has ruined neai'ly every orchard. For years after the settle- 
ment of this country wheat was an absolutely sure croj), but 
the yield dwindled with successive years, and now, in large 
districts, its culture is necessarily abandoned. Reasons have 
been urged to account for this ; that our soil has deteriorated, 
and our climate changed, but they do not explain the difficulty. 
With the best of manuring and tillage, we cannot get the crops 
our ancestors did with shiftless farming ; and even where new 
woodland is cleared, and wheat is put into the virgin soil, the 
crop is infinitesimally small. The true cause is to be found in 
the attacks of insects, and nothing else. The wheat midge and 
the Hessian fly are the only insects which have attracted much 
notice, and it is hence currently supposed that these are the 
only im23ortant depredators which we have in our wheat fields. 
But, a few } ears since, on coming to examine the growing 



24 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

wheat, the learned lecturer had been surprised to find in every 
field, multitudes of the Chlorops, Oscinis, and Thrips, insects 
which have long been known in Europe as most pernicious to 
the wheat crops there, but which have never been suspected as 
occurring upon this side of the Atlantic. Some of these depre- 
dators are preying upon it at every stage of its growth, the 
root, the tender blade, the stalk, the ear, and the ripening 
gram in the ear all having particular enemies infesting them. 
Now originally, when our country was covered by an unbroken 
forest, there was no wheat here, nor other plant of the wheat 
kind, on which such insects could subsist ; consequently when 
the lands were first cleared and sowed to wheat a bountiful 
harvest was gathered. But the thrifty fields of this grain, with 
which our country then abounded, invited these insects to 
them. One after another arriving and finding here an ample 
supply of its fiivorite food, would remain, ever afterwards lay- 
ing the crop under contribution for its support. Thus, as these 
enemies successively penetrated the country and became estab- 
lished in our wheat fields, their productiveness gradually dimin- 
ished, till at length it was no longer possible to grow this grain 
with profit, and in all the older sections of our country its 
cultivation has long been abandoned. To form some idea of 
the immense losses these pests are occasioning, look at the 
wheat midge, which has been ravaging our fields for the past 
twenty-five years. To appearance it is an insignificant little 
yellow fly, only a fourth the size of a mosquito ; but though it 
seems so powerless and inert, it was able in New York State, 
in 1854, to destroy wheat to the value of over $15,000,000, or 
nearly as much, probably, as the whole city of New Haven is 
worth, with all its houses, buildings, and lots. If air invading 
army had destroyed property ^ tliis value, how the whole 
country would have been aroused ! Multiply this tremendous 
loss by that sustained in all the States, and what a result is 
there for our contemplation ! The wheat midge, however, is, 
sad to say, not our only insect enemy, for the name of the army 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 25 

IS legion. And what has rendered the situation of our farmers 
and fruit-growers most vexatious, they have been obliged to 
remain in ignorance, no definite information respecting the 
names and habits of these creatures, from which they are sus- 
taining such losses, being accessible to them. Only two works 
on this subject have ever appeared, and neither of these has 
been on sale in the bookstores. One of them is Dr. Harris's 
Treatise, originally prepared as part of the Natural History 
Survey of Massachusetts. The other is Dr. Fitch's own Report 
on Noxious Insects, published each year in the New York 
Agricultural Society's Transactions, and also issued separately, 
two volumes being now completed. 

The insect is divided into three principal parts, viz. : head, 
thorax or fore-body, and abdomen or hind-body. The head in 
insects is furnished with antennae or horns, which possess re- 
markable sensitiveness. Thus, an ichneumon fly, by touching 
them against the outer surface of the bark of a tree in which a 
worm is lying, detects not merely its presence, but its exact 
position, althougii imbedded two or three inches in the solid 
Avood, so accurately that with its long ovipositor or sting it is 
able to pierce the wood to where the worm lies, and puncture 
its skin and insert an egg therein. And two bees or ants 
meeting, by merely touching their horns together, know if they 
belong to the same hive or hillock — for all the world as though 
there was a system of Freemasonry among them, whereby they 
know on this shaking hands as it were, Avhether they are 
brothers or strangers to each other. 

The most wonderful thing about insects is their metamor- 
phoses, or transformations, the same individual appearing at dif- 
ferent times under forms as different as for a serpent to change 
into an eagle. There are four of these forms or stages in the 
groAvth of insects : — first, the egg ; second, the larva or growing 
stage, when it is a worm or caterpillar ; third, the pupa or 
dormant stage, when it is often enclosed in a cocoon ; fourth, 
tlie perfect insect, when it is a fly, butterfly, beetle, bee, &c. 
2 



26 TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

An insect may be known to be in its perfect or mature state 
when it has "u'ings ; or if it be a wingles variety its maturity is 
known by its depositing eggs. In gi-asshoppers, plant-bugs, 
and leaf-hoppers, the changes are less comj^lete, they never 
having the form of a worm, the young resembling the mature 
insect, only being smaller and without wings. 

Insects, however much we may despise them, have a real use 
in the domain of nature — ^destroying all that is dead, and check- 
ing the increase of all that is living in the vegetable world. 
Without them the earth would immediately be overrun with 
plant life. And hence those trees and plants which it is man's 
object to cultivate, come to be attacked by those insects whose 
office it is to repress these kinds of vegetation. To be success- 
ful in his labors, therefore, man is obliged to combat those 
insects w^hich thus prey upon his croj). To do this he must 
study their habits and transformations. 

Dr. Fitch closed by stating, that the more he examined these 
creatures, the more confimed he became in the opinion, that 
there is no injurious insect but that, when we become ac- 
quainted with all the details of its history and habits, we shall 
be able to detect some assailable point and devise some meas- 
ure by which either the insect can be destroyed or the vegeta- 
tion can be shielded from its attacks. We shall discover that, 
although he may be invulnerable in every other part, no regis 
protects his heel, and if we strike Achilles there, Ave inflict a 
death wound. A prolonged outburst of applause, on the close 
of the lecture, attested how deeply Dr. Fitch had interested 
the audience. 

Subsequently, in confirmation of Dr. Fitch's statement, that 
it was not a deterioration of the soil nor change of our climate 
that prevented our growing such crops of wheat now as for- 
merly, but was the insect enemies of this grain with which the 
country has become overrun, a gentleman from Maine reported 
that in a remote part of that State, where a distiict has recently 
been newly cleared, distant from where wheat has ever been 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 27 

grown, the finest crops of this grain are now produced. Another 
gentleman stated, he was satisfied this was also the true solu- 
tion of a fact that appeared quite singular and unaccountable, 
viz. : that here on some of the old lands of Connecticut, excel- 
lent crops of wheat have recently been grown. The cultivation 
of this grain had been so long abandoned here, that all these 
wheat insects have probably disappeared, and thus released 
from them, these crops that have occasioned so much surprise, 
have grown on the old lands here, without any special manur- 
ing or other management of the crop. 

Dr. Fitch lectured again this aftei'noon, his subject this time 
being "Insects injurious to Grain Crops, with a Particular Ac- 
count of the Wheat Midge and Hessian Fly," 

He said that our losses are immeasurably greater from insects 
than those of European nations ; as we have not only our own, 
but many foreign ones introduced here, and these latter often 
greatly surpass in their destructiveness, with us, anything 
recorded of them in their native haunts. And yet, because of 
not being so overcrowded in population, they were not felt so 
much ; for there the loss of one-eighth of a crop would be 
regarded as a great national disaster, whilst here it would 
scarcely be noticed. 

The Hessian fly was undoubtedly introduced into this coun- 
try, as at first supposed, in some straw used for package, by 
the Hessian troops which landed at Flatbush, L. I, August, 
1776. The few insects thus brought here multiplied so that 
in 1779 the wheat fields in that town were destroyed. And 
from thence it gradually spread in every direction, advancing 
about twenty miles a year, penetrating to every part of our 
country. It is a small, white, footless worm, which changes to 
a pupa resembling a flax-seed, found at the crown of the root 
in autumn and winter, and at the next June another generation 
nestles at the lower joints of the stalks. Within a year or two 
of its first arrival in any given place, most of the surrounding 



28 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

wheat fields were destroyed, and its ravages usually continued 
for several years, or until its parasitic enemies had multiplied 
sufficiently to subdue it. It has frequently reappeared here 
and there, but for many years now, little has been heard of it. 
This is probably the same insect that is mentioned by Duhamel 
as having greatly injured the wheat in Switzerland in 1732, and 
again in 1755 ; but during the half century of its worst ravages 
here, it lurked undetected in Europe, till in 1833 it ravaged 
a part of Germany, and in 1834 was found by Prof Dana along 
the Mediterranean in every wheat field he visited in Spain, 
Italy, and on the Island of Minorca ; and finally, in 1852, much 
damage was caused by it upon the River Volga, where its 
parasite was also found accompanying it. Such is, in brief, all 
that is known of the European history of this insect, which, 
introduced upon our side of the Atlantic, has caused a loss of 
uncounted millions of dollars. 

The wheat midge has long been known in England. It was 
originally supposed to be a soit of mildew which thus blighted 
the wheat, and was only ascertained to be an insect in 1771. 
And in 1797, Mr. Kirby, searching for the Hessian fly, partially 
traced out the habits of this insect. It was doubtless intro- 
duced into this country in some untlireshed wheat brought to 
Canada, for it was first noticed upon the St. Lawrence, and 
also in Northern Vermont, in the year 1830, though it did not 
multiply and become so destructive as to attract public notice 
until nine years later, when it also began to extend itself, and 
has now overspread Canada and all the Northern States as far 
west as into Indiana. Its larva is a minute footless worm, or 
maggot, of a bright orange-yellow color, found in numbers upon 
the young kernels in the wheat heads, causing them to be small 
and shrivelled, to such an extent some years that many fields 
are not harvested, every kernel being blighted. In England 
the midge is preyed upon by a pai'asitic insect,'a small kind of 
ichneumon fly, which rapidly multiplies whenever the midge 
becomes numerous, and thus quells and subdues it, just as the 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. _ 29 

Hessian fly with us is now kept in subjection by its i^avasite. 
And Dr. Fitch thinks the reason Avhy the midge is so vastly 
more numerous and destructive here than it ever has been 
in Euro23e is, because this parasitic destroyer, its inveterate 
enemy, has never reached our country. Thus we have received 
the evil without the remedy. There are two ways by which 
it is in our power to abate this evil; by destroying, 1st, the 
fly itsel ; and 2d, its larva. If, early in June, in the evening, 
when the flies in a swarm are dancing about the wheat heads 
to deposit their eggs therein, the field be swept over with a 
suitable kind of net, the flies may be captured therein, and 
destroyed in such multitudes that the few that are missed will 
be able to do little injury to the crop. Of the larvae, a portion 
remain in the wheat heads at harvest, and are taken into the 
barn, and are finally gathered among the screenings of the fan- 
ning mill, which should be burned, or fed to poultry, and not 
thrown out, as they usually are, among the litter of the barn 
yard, where they mature and hatch another swarm of flies. 
The other portion of these larvte have at harvest descended to 
the ground, where they repose s'ightly under the surface till 
they hatch into flies the following May ; and it has been thought 
that by plowing the wheat stubble they would be buried so 
deep as to smother them ; but experiments are needed, to 
demonstrate whether this idea is well founded — these larvae 
being very tenacious of life. Water will not drown them. Dr. 
Fitch has kept them submerged in vials of water three months, 
and then on placing them on paper they begin to wriggle and 
crawl away. 

The audience being invited to ask questions on the subject 
of the lecture, if so disposed, availed themselves of the permis- 
sion. Dr. Fitch, in answer to sundry queries, said that neither 
sowing lime on wheat when the dew was on, nor sowing salt, 
nor using sulphur or salt in the granary, nor tobacco-water 
sprinkled on the field, were specifics. Donald G. Mitchell 
suggested, as it was uncertain whether deep plowing would 



30 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

destroy the larvce, the European practice of paring and burn- 
ing the surface might be resorted to, in the stubble of wheat 
fields. Dr. Fitch presumed this would be effectual, as the 
little rascals probably can't stand fire as they do water. 

If New York loses fifteen millions of dollars a year from the 
wheat midge, w^hy wouldn't it be a good plan to send Dr. 
Fitch to Europe to i3rocure the great foe of the midge, the 
ichneumon fly ? This latter insect sweeps the other from the 
very face of the earth ; and a half-bushel of its eggs hatched 
on Dr. Fitch's place would be worth its weight in diamonds 
" of purest ray serene." 



THIRD DAY.— Feb. 3, 1860. 

Mr. Eaton's lecture on vegetable physiology last evening 
comprised full descriptions of the seed, root, and stem of plants ; 
the nature and growth of seeds ; structure of roots ; and the gen- 
eral structure and minute anatomy of stems. He showed, 
among other things, how the shape of trees is controlled. 
When the bud at the end of the stem is strongest, the shape of 
the tree is a pyramid, as in the case of the spruce and fir. 
Where there is no one strongest terminal bud, there is no prin- 
cij)al trunk in the upper part of the tree, so that the tree is 
rounded at the top, as the elm. 

The morning lecture to-day was by Dr. Fitch, and was 
highly interesting. And here let me state, that, in my opinion, 
the entomological lectures of Dr. Fitch are the most impor- 
tant of this course, for he shows the habits of, and suggests 
remedies against, the insects which cause losses to our farmers 
to a fobulous amount annually ; and he stands almost alone in his 
specialty. The Doctor's lecture to-day was on the insects in- 
jurious to fiuit-trees. There are at present known to us, in the 
United States, 60 different insects Avhich prey upon the apple, 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 31 

12 on the pear, 16 on the peach, 17 on the plum, 35 on the 
cheny, and 30 on the grape. Prominent among these is the 
phim weevil, or curciilio, which Dr. Fitch stigmatized as the 
worst insect of our country ; for though the midge is at pres- 
ent causing a greater amount of pecuniary loss, he thought 
its career would be like that of its predecessor, the Hessian fly, 
and that it would eventually be mastered and subdued by its 
I^arasite destroyers. Unlike the wheat midge, the curculio is a 
native insect of this country, which has now been known up- 
wards of a century, during all of which time it appears to 
have gradually multiplied and increased its forces, without any 
impoi'tant cessations or intervals in its ravages — no parasite de- 
stroyer of it having ever been discovered till within a few 
months past. It was first noticed by the botanists Collinson 
and Bartram, in 1746, as totally destroying the nectarines 
in and about Philadelphia, while the plums were but slightly 
molested. Their turn came next, however, and each subse- 
quent investigator found it ravaging a different section of 
country. Notwithstanding the volumes written upon it, we 
do not to this day know where the curculio lives, and what it 
is doing for three-quarters of the year. All that is currently 
known of it is, that it is a small brown and white beetle, 
which makes its appearance on plum-trees when the young fruit 
is half grown ; that it cuts a crescent-shaped slit upon the side 
of the fruit and drops an egg into the wound, from which egg a 
small white worm hatches, which burrows in the fruit, causing 
it to wilt and fall from the tree, whereupon the worm crawls in- 
to the ground to repose for two or three weeks during its pupa 
state ; and that it comes out in the latter part of July a beetle, like 
the parent which six weeks before stung the fruit. This, which 
is currently supposed to be the main and essential part of its 
history. Dr. Fitch judges to be quite the reverse; and he is 
convinced that if there were no fruit for the curculio to eat, it 
would still thrive to its entire satisfaction. 
In New England and New Yoi-k, the beetle may be found 



32 TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

abroad the last of March, if the weather is tine, though usu- 
ally it is not till about the middle of May ; and in a week or 
two after it becomes quite common. It is found standing or 
slowly walking upon the trunk and limbs of the plum, cherry, 
apple, the wild thorn-apple, the butternut, and other trees. 
Those on the butternut are plumper than the others. From 
this time onward, tUl cold weather returns, we continue to 
meet with it, and late in autumn it is to be seen on the flowers 
of the golden-rod as plentifully as at any time through the 
season. When the young fruit appears, in June, it attacks it 
with the skill of an epicure, selecting the choicest varieties 
first. Its crescent-sha23ed incision is the signal of destruc- 
tion, as Avas the crescent banner of the Moslem of old. The 
slit made, one egg is deposited ; and but one slit is made on a 
fruit. The peach, plum, and aj^ple, when stung, wilt and fall ; 
but the cherry and thorn-apple do not. This is because the 
larger Iruit contains a sufiicient amount of nourishment to ma- 
tui-e the worm ; while the smaller ones must grow on to elab- 
orate the quantity of food which the worm needs. It is a fact 
not generally known, that apples are attacked by the plum cur- 
culio, yet so great are the losses of this i:>articular fruit, that the 
lecturer gave it as his opinion that the poorer yield of our or- 
chards now, as compared with heretofore, is dne to this insect. 
The wilted fruit literally covers the ground, under many trees, 
the fore part of July. Cut into this fruit and you will find the 
same curculio worm therein as in the fallen plums. 

From the fact that this insect coines forth three weeks be- 
fore there is any fruit ready for it to eat, and remains after the 
fruit is gone, Dr. Fitch thinks that it has other places of refuge 
to cradle its young besides the young fruit. In fi\ct, it is well 
ascertained that it breeds in the black knot excrescences on 
plum and cherry-trees, as eagei'ly as in young fruit. Hence it 
has been thought to cause the excrescences. But having exam- 
ined the black knots fully in every stage of their growth. Dr. 
Fitch says decidedly they are not produced by this or any 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 33 

other insect, nor are they a vegetable fungus, but are purely a 
local disease of the limbs, in Avhich the bark and wood are 
swollen and changed to a spongy substance, but without any 
of the juiciness which belongs to young fruit. This disease has 
some analogy to the cancer in the human body, and its cure is 
the same, namely, the knife, removing the diseased part totally, 
&i soon as discovered. 

With Melsheimer, Dr. Fitch believes that the curculio breeds 
in the bark as well as the fruit of trees, for on a specimen of 
pear-wood sent him some years ago, his microscope revealed 
crescent cuts in the bark, like those on young fruit, in which 
little maggots were lying side by side, ready to eat their way 
onward when the warmth of spring revived them. 

Within six months D. W. Beadle, of St. Catharine's, C. W., 
has sent the Doctor a curculio parasite, which is furnished 
with a bristle-like sting with which it pierces the black knot 
to where the curculio larva lies, and deposits an egg in the 
body ol the latter, to hatch and gradually kill it. The late 
David Thomas, of Union Springs, New York, first recom- 
mended knocking the plum-tree to remove weevils. The rem- 
edy is partial, but not infallible. Mr. A. P. Cuinings, of 
New York, recommends to syringe the trees with a mixture 
of four gallons lime-water, four gallons tobacco-water, one 
pound Avhale-oil soap, and four ounces sulphur. The tobacco 
and soap in solution Dr. Fitch thinks good, but doubts wheth- 
er the other ingredients add anything to the value of the mix- 
ture. There is much testimony to substantiate the fact that 
trees, whose limbs project over water, always bear fine crops of 
plums, — the curculio being aware that its young will drown if 
the fruit drops into the water. 

Another important insect is the apple-tree borer, — a long 
grub which resides under the bark and bores into the solid 
wood, sometimes below, but usually slightly above the ground, 
and is two or three years in getting its growth. A few years 
since, an agent of one of our large nurseries canvassed Wash- 
2* 



34 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

ington county, N. Y., disposing of trees to the amount of 
three thousand dollai\s. More than half of these trees have 
since been destroyed by this borer — a direct loss of $5,000 
from this insect in that single county, in addition to the labor 
lost in planting and nursing these perished trees. This must 
not be confounded with the borer in the roots of peach-trees, 
which is the progeny of a moth, while this is the young of a 
brown, long-horned beetle, having two white stripes the whole 
length of its back. Specimens of this, as of the other insects 
spoken of by the lecturer, and of the wood as perforated by 
it, were passed frorn hand to hand through the audience. The 
common soft soap rubbed on the bark of the trees the latter 
part of May, prevents the attack of this insect. If this be neg- 
lected, and the borers have made a lodgement in the bark, 
their presence is usually shown by particles like sawdust, which 
they thrust out of their burrows, and when discovered they 
should be cut out with a knife or chisel without delay. 

The regular lecturer of the afternoon was Mr. Eaton, who 
enlarged on the physiology of vegetables, giving many interest- 
ing illustrations of the varied forms and sizes of leaves, and 
showing how the juices circulate from root to top, and the 
food is taken and appropriated. He spoke of the essential 
distinctions between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and 
of their relations to each other. Plants are continually purify- 
ing the air, rendering it fit for animals to breathe ; and plants 
also, directly or indirectly, supply animals with all their food. 
Plants live directly on the mineral kingdom, and assimilate to 
themselves inorganic matter ; while animals consume organ- 
ized matter only. 

Mr, Eaton is an enthusiastic botanist, and evidently familiar 
with his subject. 



YALE AGRICULTUKAL LECTURES. ;.S6 

FOURTH DAY.— Feb. 4, 1860. 

A change has been made in our programme. Instead of 
the third lecture being at seven in the evening, it is transferred 
to half past three in the afternoon, the usual hour for the second 
lecture, which, by this arrangement, will be changed to quarter 
past two o'clock, the two lectures following one after the other. 
This plan is to accommodate persons who, living out of town, 
wish to hear all the three lectures, and return home before 
evening. 

Professor Johnson gave a lecture last evening, on the "At- 
mospheric Food of Plants," reserving a consideration of their 
inorganic food for this morning. The larger part of the sub- 
stance of plants is, as every intelligent farmer knows nowa- 
days, obtained from the air ; a fact fully proved in the simple 
experiment of burning Avood in our stoves. A log of wood so 
large as to require two men to roll it on to the fire, burns away 
so that, after a time, nothing remains but a shovelful of ashes, 
so light that a child can carry it out. Where has the log gone 
to, and where have the myriad million tons of trees, plants, 
and animal bodies gone to, which, in past ages, grew upon the 
earth ? They have each borrowed a little mineral matter from 
the ground, and a vast quantity of gases from the atmosphere, 
out of which all their roots, trunks, stems, leaves, and branches 
have, with wonderful skill, been built. The animal feeding 
upon the vegetable — it, too, has built up its structure from these 
same original elements. In both plant and animal the season of 
life was followed by a time of death, and the organized body 
resolved into the gases and minerals, the use of which it had 
borrowed for a brief season. Professor Johnson explained the 
gradual progress of knowledge of atmospheric constituents, 
until one day none of its ingredients remained unknown ; and by 
means of the few well-known experiments he demonstrated the 
nature and properties of each. When the source of the car- 
bon of plants was still a matter of dispute, Boussingault, the 



so YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

great French chemist, proved that ouly from carbonic acid was 
it obtained, by the experiment of supplying to a plant under a 
bell-glass, a weighed quantity of tiie gas, and noting the pro- 
portion abstracted by the plant. The weight of carbon in the 
soil being absolutely known, as well as that in the plant itself, 
the increase of quantity at an advanced stage of growth was 
found to have been attained at the expense of the carbon in 
the gas, and not of that in the soil. 

Mr. Johnson stated it as the practice of some nurserymen to 
place a piece of carbonate of ammonia, as large as a walnut, 
upon the steam-pipes of the hothouse. The ammonia thus evap- 
orated produces in the leaves of all the plants with which it 
comes in contact a splendid deep-green color, and greatly pro- 
motes the growth of the plants. 

To-day he treated on the ashes of plants, and in the course 
of his lecture uttered some doctrines which sadly conflict with 
the received notions which are to be found floating through 
our agricultural papers. For instance : he said that, chemi- 
cally, magnesia is 7iot injurious to crops when added in excess 
to the field. The noxious eftect of strong magnesian lime, if 
any, was due simply to a mechanical action in the soil ; this 
particular lime acting in some wise as a cement when moisten- 
ed. Again : he said that the stiifness of straw is most de- 
cidedly not owing to an abundance of silica on the oiitside, but 
to "the denseness of cellular tissue in the stalk," This he con- 
sidered proved in the fact that we get from the leaves of the oat 
and other plants a greater proportion of silica than from the 
stalk, and yet all leaves are pliant and soft. And the addition 
of wood-ashes, caustic-lime, and other alkalies with the view to 
making soluble silicates for the use of the j^lants, is a piece of 
useless folly, for "all water found inthe soil contains silicates 
and silica in excess beyond the wants of plants. The addition 
of alkaline silicates to the soil would be unavailing, for the sili- 
cates would be decomposed and the silica rendered insoluble." 
As an example, he stated that in marshy lands, where sedge 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 37 

and otheraquatic silici ous plants grow, the addition of lime, 
which removes the excess of silica from the soil, favors the 
growth of less silicious plants. The silica then on corn-stalks, 
cereal crops, bamboo, rattan, and such-like, he deems an ex- 
cretion. The "lodging" of crops he thinks may be owing to 
a weakness of cellular tissue, which may arise from a lack of 
some nutritive matter oi- another, or from excessive transpira- 
tion of water. It is known that a plant sucks, sponge-fashion, 
its juices from the soil, through the extremities of its roots and 
rootlets. In this water all sorts of mineral matter are dissolved, 
and with them a certain proportion of carbonic acid and am- 
monia ; well, the plant has a very wonderful power of selecting 
from this soil-moisture just as much mineral matter as it needs 
for its growth, and of rejecting all the surplus. Water, how- 
ever, oozes in, by the principle of endosmose, and is sucked up- 
ward from cell surface to cell surface, until it gets to the leaves, 
where the blowing of wind and the shining of sun upon the 
leaf surfaces evaporate the water through the little pores, 
stomata, Avhich communicate with the outside air. The plant 
wants only just so much juice passing through it at once, and 
if an excess is poured through throughout a warm, damp sea- 
son, you see how likely it is that its constitution should be 
weakened. Recent German experiments which have come to 
Professor Johnson's observation suggest that the beneficial 
effects of salt, plaster of Paris, and other mineral fertilizers, are 
due to their preventing this excessive transpiration, or rushing 
of an excess of water through the plant. Mr. John Johnston 
sows five bushels of salt on his wheat-fields, " to give stiffness 
to the straw and prevent rust." The old farmer observed the 
effect ; our chemical friends think they have discovered the 
cause. 

Moreover, what Professor Mapes will scout as sheer heresy, 
Johnson says that the mineral phosphate from Estramadura 
and elsewhere is as good for fertilizing crops, if it be prop- 
erly divided mechanically, as bone phosphate — thus directly 



.38 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

combating the Professor's theory of " the progression of 
primaries by their use in organic nature." Mr. Johnson is 
a young man, and a bold man ; and if lie has enough facts to 
base these several assertions upon, I don't blame him for having 
the manliness to proclaim them. I must say I like this transpi- 
x'ation theory, for it explains a good many little matters for 
which a reasonable solution has not heretofore been afforded. 
As to the stalk-coating afiiiir, and the mineral phosphate busi- 
ness, the case does not as yet seem to me fully proven. 



FIFTH DAY.— Feb. 6, 1860. 

The Rev. Chauxcey E. Goodrich, in his lecture, on Saturday, 
considered the potato-disease in all its several relations, a branch 
of investigation on which many years of jDractice enable him 
to speak understandingly. 

The potato, in a state of nature, is found on the sides of the 
Andes, and in the adjacent valleys. At the base of the mountains 
are the tamarind, yam, and banana ; the melon, corn, tomato, 
and pepper come higher up; and above these is the belt where 
the potato thrives most vigorously, the climate being equable, 
and the root not exj^osed to the frosts. When the same varie- 
ties of potatoes, especially those which ripen at nearly the same 
time, are cultivated together, they are variously subject to dis- 
ease. Thus the old " Early Mountain June," " Early Pink-Eye" 
or (Dyckman), of the early kinds; and the "Carter," and 
"Western Red " of the late sorts, are peculiarly liable to dis- 
ease. 

If you plant alongside them, however, the imported " Rough 
Purple Chili," the "Garnet Chili," the "Black Diamond," 
and the " Early Hartford," they show a much hardier consti- 
tution. And this difference, Mr. Goodrich thinks, is due to a 
difference in vital energy, which may be owing to a course of 
replanting, without recourse to the seed-ball, unreasonably jjro- 
tractcd. Very wet, cold seasons, such as 1857; or hot, damp 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 39 

ones, like 1850, 1851, and 1855, cause rot ; so do sudden alter- 
nations of temperature — for instance, from dry, hot weather, to 
wet, cold, and windy ; and these clianges destroy the cucum- 
ber, squash, melon, tomato, and egg-plant, as well as the potato. 
The years 1847, 1848, 1854, and 1850, and especially 1852, 
were flworable ones. 

Soil as well as climate has much to do with the nature of 
crops. Gravel or loamy soils are best, especially when they 
contain a large proportion of vegetable matter. Sods or straw 
laid in the furrow over the seed are good, because they main- 
tain an equal temperature beneath them. It is bad to apply 
much stable manure or guano. Of exposures a northern is best ; 
a southern heats too much, and an eastern heats too rapidly 
after a cold night. Early planting is best, as it gives the plant 
a slow, hardy growth in the comparatively wet weather early 
in the season, which fits it better to withstand the sudden 
transitions of midsummer. 

Early maturing sorts are the surest in bad seasons. Potatoes 
require deep plowing, and should be subsoiled when a few 
inches high. Plant six inches deep if your soil be dry, culti- 
vate frequently until the plants are in flower, and never after- 
ward. Plant free-growing sorts three by three feet, to give 
full quantity of air and light. The pieces of seed should not 
be less than three ounces in weight, each, and cut them length- 
wise, never across the potato. 

Tlsual Signs of Disease. — A wilted leaf on the young 
rosettes of the plant, which are the tenderest parts, and first 
show disease. 2d. Steel-blue points on some of the older and 
outer leaves, and yellow iron-rust stains on the inner leaves. 
3d. Mildew, which quickly follows these signs, and which, if not 
arrested, kills the whole plant. These are the signs of disease 
produced by cold and wet weather changes. 

The hot, muggy atmosphere causes an intense dark green 
color in the leaf, with spotted blotches, which soon turn into 
mildew, and kill the plant. In the case of cool weather, 



40 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

the flowers fall witlioiit setting" tVuit, >vhlto in tlic hot and damp 
climate seed-balls set freely, but, with the whole plant, fall a 
prey to miklew. 

The cause of disease Mr. Goodrich believes to be the facility 
with which a weakened cellular structure will pass into fermen- 
tation, in presence of albuminous matter. For a remedy he 
advises to mow off, or pull up the tops, when it is evident that 
the weather will not speedily change for the better, but even 
this will be unavailing in some cases ; so that to my mind all 
this goes to show that our only remedy is to cultivate as well 
as we kn(.>w how, choosing new and hardy sorts of potatoes, 
planting early, and trust to chance for the rest. 

The mowing of tops has been tried over and over again, with 
sometinies success and sometimes the reverse ; and so liave a 
thousand other remedies, each of which has in turn been pro- 
claimed a specitic. A prize-essay in the lloyal Society's Jonr- 
nal for 185S, gives us to imderstand that deep planting is the 
true and only remedy ; nnd yet I have planted deep — and so 
have thousands of others — and yet lost a crop. Mr. Goodrich 
has spent years in close observation, and accumulated a fund 
of information, but I venture to say that even he has not yet 
explained this mysterious disease, its origin and antidotes, so 
clearly that he who runs may read. 

This morning Mr. Eatox spoke briefly about flowers and 
fruits, showing how the pollen, or yellow dust of the flowei'S, 
acts on the ovides or rudimentary seeds ; causing them to de- 
velop into seeds containing an embryo, and capable of grow- 
ing Tip into new plants. 

From this he went on to the subject of hybridization, and then 
of grafting. Grafting has been practically known for many cen- 
turies — in fact since the world was young ; but the theory was 
letl to botanists to discover. Between the baric and wood are 
what are called cambium layers, or the growing part of the 
tree, the one which possesses the most active vitality. Un- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 41 

less these cambium layers of the tree and graft are brought 
together, no union will result ; nor will there be one from the 
contact of very different trees, such as a pear-graft on an oak. 
The reason for this is, that the cellular tissues of the two are 
so very difforent that there is no probability of inaking a lit, 
any more than one can lit a sphere to an octahedron. Pears 
graft well on quince, thornbush, and shadberry. They can bo 
grafted on the apple, but not profitably. The peach goes on to 
the nectarine, and the plum to the cherry. There are instances 
of natural grnfting, as with the ivy when two branches cross 
and rub the bark off so as to expose the cambium layers. Of 
different grafts, of course the best is that which provides for 
the greatest contact of the layers. 

Seeds are of varied vitality. Oily seeds do not keep Avell 
because their oleaginous contents are liable to become rancid. 
Thus the seeds of coffee, magnolia, clove, and such like, must 
be soon phmted or never. Seeds require warmth and moisture, 
and if kept away from warmth, they often will keep for years 
and years. Cucumber seeds have been kept seventeen years ; 
corn, thirty ; French beans, thirty-three ; and from one bag of 
seeds the Jardin des Plantes Avas supplied with sensitive plants 
for sixty years. 

To keep seeds well for the longest possible time, gather them 
when fully ripe, and keep them cool and dry. How wonderful 
the provisions of Nature for the dispersion of seeds ! Some are 
furnished with feathery wings or silken down, with which they 
float along on every zephyr ; others have barbed points, or 
hooks, to catch and cling to passing animals ; others have elas- 
tic capsules or seed-bags, which, when brushed against, burst 
suddenly npart and scatter the contents abroad ; and a thou- 
sand other methods might be named, alike curious and admi- 
rable. 



42 YALE AGIJICULTURAL LECTURES. 



SIXTH DAY.— Feb. 7, 1860. 

Professor Jounson lius boldly set liimself in array against a 
new theory of Liebig's, for one thing, ami scouts the utility of 
soil-analysis, for another. Those who have read Liebig's recent 
pamphlet on " Modern Agriculture," will remember his doc- 
trine that mineral matters are not in a soluble state in the soil ; 
in support of which he quotes the experiment of passing 
through a sample of fertile soil water holding in solution phos- 
phoric acid and other plant foods, and thereby removing the 
salts entirely. The formerly soluble mineral matters he sup- 
poses to have been made insoluble in the passage through, and 
putting this and that together, he says that if this be the case, 
why then, plants must actually have the power of taking in the 
insoluble material which they need for their growth, and mak- 
ing it soluble after it gets within their spongioles. Johnson 
thinks Liebig's theory would be very pretty if the little if 
were removed. In otlier words, he says that Liebig's experi- 
ment was rudely performed, and that the mineral matter was 
not and never can be entirely removed from the water, and 
hence Liebig's supcrstructural argument falls, like the Pember- 
ton mills, for want of a sound basis. He says he knows of 
beans and other plants having been grown and ripened in 
naught but a Avatery solution of mineral and organic food — a 
fact which goes far towards proving that soluble matter is 
used to full advantage by plants when they can get it. Al- 
though I do obeisance to Liebig, I think Johnson is right in 
this instance, and so I fancy do many others. As to soil-an- 
alysis, Johnson reasons thus: One foot deep of the soil in an 
acre weighs 2,000,000 pounds ; a crop of wheat will remove 
say 200 pounds ; if that 200 pounds be not in an jivailable state, 
no crop will grow. To know if there be enough for the crop, 
you take a little sample, say 100 or 1,000 grains, and analyse 
it. Now, does any man living expect the chemist to tell, by 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 43 

even the most miraculously sensitive balances or tests of the 
infinitesimal sample, whether the 2,000,000 pounds contain 
enough phosphoric acid, or ammonia, or other ingredients 
to raise a crop ? Take a barren soil, for instance, or one 
called so, on which the application of 400 pounds of guano will 
make all the difference of sterility or a crop. Now, can a 
chemist tell in his laboratory, by testing 100 grains of that soil, 
taken promiscuously from all parts of tlic field, whether the 
guano had or had not boon added ? Verily not, says Professor 
Johnson. And so our young agricultural chemist takes issue 
on the question, and is prepared to do battle Avith oiir beauti- 
ful pet theory d Voiitrance. He thinks that if one would take 
50 pounds of soil, and wash it with an enormous quantity of 
water, to dissolve out the soluble salts — a little job which 
would take at least a fortnight, and might a month — he might, 
by analysis, find whether there was a great excess or deficiency 
of plant food in the field from which the sample came. But 
the cost and trouble of the experiment are serious objections 
to putting the scheme into practice. 

The most fertile soils contain the finest particles ; or, in other 
words, soils are like linen, better for having fine texture. 
Most soils are deficient mechanically rather than chemically. 
There is great store of jjlant food, but not finely enough divid- 
ed. A field, therefore, which, in a certain state of pulveriza- 
tion, will produce 15 bushels of wheat, Avould, or should, yield 
30 if Avorked up twice as fine. Why ? Because there is twice 
the amount of surface of particles exposed to the action of 
heat, and cold, and rain, and therefore twice as much plant 
food set free. Take your multiplication table and figure up 
this idea as fir as you like, and then you Avill see the use of 
sub-soil plows, and clod-crushers, and good harrows, and deep 
l)lowing, and all these modern contrivances for breaking up 
our fields into a good seed-bed. 



44 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

Last evening the Temple was crowded to hear Mr. Wilder's 
excellent address on American Pomology — a topic on which 
no one in America can speak more understandingly than the 
President of the National Pomological Congress. 

Mr. Wilder commenced by saying that he had accepted 
the polite invitation of Professor Porter, at considerable incon- 
venience, for the purpose of bearing his testimony in favor of 
the present course of lectures. Whatever might be thouglit 
by profound scholars of the enterprise, he entertained no doubt 
that the mass of our practical and intelligent citizens would 
welcome it as the harbinger of a brighter day in the cause of 
progressive and general education. The honor of inaugurating 
this com'se belongs to gentlemen of Yale College — an institu- 
tion second to no other in this land for large contributions to 
the Republic of Letters, for discoveries in the natural sciences, 
and for their application to the rural arts. 

Few subjects exhibit so remarkably the progress of civiliza- 
tion as the increase of fine fruits. In the progress of pomology 
two facts are worthy of special notice : First, the rapid multi- 
l^lication of varieties; secondly, the high character of our 
criterion or standard of excellence. The lecturer here gave a 
historical account of the progress of fruit-raising, both in 
Europe and in our own country, mentioning that the first 
Horticultural Societies in our own land were the Pennsylva- 
nian, and Massachusetts, in 1829, and that of New Haven, 
in 1830. Now there are more than 1,000 agricultural and 
horticultural societies, all laboring together, and making po- 
mology a prominent object of support. Li 1817 there were no 
nurseries of any note in New England ; now there are many. 
Then Western New York was just beginning to be settled; 
now Rochester is the great pomological emporium of our 
country, and contains the largest commercial* nursery in the 
world. It is estimated that the nurseries of Onondaga and 
adjoining counties contain fifty millions of trees for sale. Fruit 
was formerly a luxury ; now it is numbered among the common 



TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 45 

bounties of Providence, and the most humble cottage is rarely 
without a fruit-tree or a grape-vine. 

Our country has taken a leading part in this enterprise. 
Native fruits are fast superseding foreign varieties. The trees 
and plants of a country flourish better at home than elsewhere ; 
hence all our efforts are being, and should be, put forth, to get 
new native sorts of first quality. Of the 36 kinds of apples 
recommended by the American Pomological Society for gene- 
ral cultivation, 30 are natives ; so are 10 out of the ll plums, 
half the pears, and all the strawberries. Formerly our only 
native grapes were the Catawba and Isabella ; now they are re- 
ceived in such quantities from the South and West, that a 
Boston dealar buys two and a half tons at one time for his own 
trade. A mania now exists for American sorts, some of which 
will doubtless prove excellent. 

A kindred subject is the manufacture of native wine. A Bos- 
ton jnanufacturer produces annually, from the wild grapes 
grown on the banks of Charles river, 20,000 gallons ; Con- 
necticut manufactures annually 200,000 gallons ; Ohio, 800,000 
gallons ; and one vine-grower at Los Angelos, Cal, manu- 
flictures annually 2,000 barrels from his own vineyard, Mis- 
souri, in addition to her vineyards, has five millions of acres 
suited to grape culture. 

All the strawberries used to be brought from the fields, and 
not a single American variety had been raised by hybridiza- 
tion ; now a cultivator in Massachusetts produces 160 bushels, 
valued at $1,300 per acre, and another in Connecticut more 
yet, from new sorts produced from seed. Other parts of the 
country have impi-oved equally with the East. A Boston 
apple dealer received last autumn 20,000 barrels of apples from 
Niagara county, N. Y. In the fall aiid winter of 1858-9, Bos- 
ton exported 120,000 barrels, mostly Baldwins. The progress 
of fruit culture is well illustrated in the returns of the fruit 
crop of Massachusetts. In 1845 it was valued at $744,000 ; in 
1855 at $1,300,000, and in 1860 it will be $2,000,000, or over. 



4BBt TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

The soil and climate of the South, contrary to common opinion, 
are favorable to the culture of fruit. There is an orchard in 
Georoia of 9,500 pear-trees, and another in Mississippi of 
15,000, Many fiuits nearly worthless at the North are render- 
ed valuable under the warmer climate and genial sun of the 
South. One gentleman at the South sends North every year 
from seven to ten thousand dollars' worth of peaches, before 
they are ripe in the middle States. We can approximate to 
an estimate of the fruit crop of the United States from these 
examples, but who can tell what Avill be its importance when 
the numberless young trees planted in the Eastern and Middle 
States — when the vast vineyards and orchards now flourishing 
in the great Valley of the Mississippi, and in the Southern 
States, shall have arrived at maturity ? 

Col. Wilder next passed to the inquiry, " What are the best 
means of promoting this art and science ?" First, Thorough 
drainage and the proper preparation of the soil. The former 
is the great distinguishing feature of the terra-culture of the 
Nineteenth Century. It is to agriculture what the telegraph 
and steam are to commerce, and to the progressive civilization 
of the world. It is an indis])ensable condition of success in 
pomology. A pear-tree standing in drained, deep, and thor- 
oughly-worked soil, produced in a single year eight hundred 
perfect specimens of its fruit, while similar trees, outside the 
influence of such cultivation, would hardly yield one hundred 
each, and these of inferior quality. Second, Appropriate soil 
and location. No tree should be placed where one of the same 
species had grown and decayed. A treatise which should 
specify upon scientific principles the particular locality and 
kind of soil adapted to each species and variety of fruit, would 
be a desideratum which some one >vould do well to supply. 
Third, Climate and meteorological agencies. Climate as well 
as soil, controlled the quality of our fruit. In cold, wet seasons, 
fruit was likely to be watery and insipid ; in fact, this was so 
marked as to entirely change the flavor of really luscious vari- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 47 

eties of the pear, so that we would scarcely recognize them as 
the same as we had eaten in propitious seasons. Fourth, Ma- 
nures and their application. Analyze your soil and your crop, 
and manure according to what you find the plant needs. 
Mulching is an excellent practice. Manure should be applied 
at or near the surface. An orchard should always be kept free 
from grass or weeds, and no other crop should be raised except 
when the trees are small, and even then only a few vegetables 
midway between the rows. When the trees arrive at matu- 
rity, cultivation should not exceed a depth of more tlian three 
or four inches ; the roots should never be disturbed with the 
plow or spade. Fifth, The Y>rod\icmg from seed new and im- 
proved varieties suited to each locality. Dr. Van Mons dis- 
couraged hybridization. He believed it tended to degeneracy 
and imperfection, but he must have overlooked the fact that 
many of his choicest varieties may have been the result of 
natural impregnation, the pollen being conveyed from one kind 
to another by the breeze or by insects. Mr. Knight, late 
President of the London Horticultural Society, was in favor of 
it. The improvement of plants by this art is illustrated by im- 
provement in the turnip crop of England, of whose importance 
Daniel Webster remarked : " England would fail to pay the 
interest of her national debt if turnips were excluded from her 
culture." But nature's theory is, that like produces like, and 
the lecturer recommended the planting of the most mature and 
pei'fect seed of the most hardy and vigorous sorts. Sixth, The 
cultivation of the pear upon the quince stock. Some pomolo- 
gists object to this, but some varieties succeed better on the 
quince than upon the pear, but they should always be planted 
upon a luxuriant soil, and be abimdantly supplied with nutri- 
ment. They should be set deep enough to cover the place 
where they were grafted three or four inclies. In this way 
the pear would frequently form independent roots, and would 
combine the early fruiting of the quince with the longevity of 



48 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

the pcav. Thoy arc well adapted for cities, Avhere garden 
room is scarce, and for pri'sons advanced in life, wlio, Avere they 
relying on the standard pear for fruit, would die without the 
sight thereof Some of the best cultivators practise this plan. 
The failures in fniit-growing were mainly attributable to bad 
selection of soil and varieties, injudicious treatment, or bad 
cultivation. All soils are not suitable for fruit-orchards, nor 
are all kinds of fruit adapted to every locality. An orchard 
of half an acre, near Rochester, yielded forty barrels, which 
sold for ^16 per barrel, making $640 for half an acre. Seventh, 
Pruning, which requires the exercise of the most careful judg- 
ment. The pruning-knife of the pomologist is like the ampu- 
tating knife of the surgeon, to be used only in cases of extreme 
necessity. As to prunhig, it is to be remembered that diiferent 
varieties require different treatment, for they are not all alike 
in constitutional vigor, or external form. Hence no general 
rule could be given ; each man must learn Irom experience. 
Eighth, Preserving and ripening of fruit. Much progress has 
been made of late. Fall fruits have been kept till spring. 
Sunmicr fruits should be gathered before the ripening process 
commences. Tlie pear, if left to ripen on the tree, foi-ms fibre 
and farina, but when removed, and placed in a still atmosphere, 
sugar and juice. Fruits should be kept in a cool, dry, and dark 
place. About 40" Fahrenheit is the best temperature, but 
different varieties require different treatment. 

The lecturer concluded with a congratulation for those who 
■were entering upon the inviting field of pomological culture. 
" The innate hope to regain a ' Paradise Lost,' inspires 
even the most humble to have a country home, and to enibel- 
lish that home with fruits and flowers. * * * The mission 
of the pomologist is to multiply our varieties of good fruit — 
to increase their abundance — to scatter them profusely along 
the rugged path of life, and thus Avould he extend the sphere 
of rational enjoyment, dignify labor, adorn our beloved land 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 49 

with orchards, garden:^, and vineyards, and fulfil one of the 
great purposes of our being — to promote the health and hap- 
piness of our fellow-men." 

Almost as large an audience assembled this morning to hear 
Lewis F. Allkn speak on fruits. The editor of the American 
Short-Horn Herd Book showed a familiarity with apples almost 
equal to that he has with animals, and he gave us his notions 
in a hearty, good-natured way that enlisted the sympathies of 
the audience.* 

Mr. R. G. Pardee, of New York city, gave his first lecture 
this afternoon on the Strawberry. He came, he said, to speak 
of facts, not theories. He had tried to grow strawberries for 
many years by high manuring, but without success. He deter- 
mined to experiment till he should discover the cause of the 
faihire. He had done so. It Avas by overfeeding. He could 
now grow them as cheaply as potatoes. The following, accord- 
ing to his experience, is the best method : Select a warm, moist, 
but exposed situation ; for early beri'ies, let it slope to the East 
or South ; for late ones to the North. The soil should be a fine, 
gravelly loam. Avoid high, barren soils, and those which are wet. 
To prepare the soil, make it clean ; underdrain, leaving the drain 
open at both ends to allow tlu^ circulation of air. Pulverize at 
least two feet in depth, making 10 per cent, of the soil, if possi- 
ble, as fine as superfine flour. For manures, apply 30 bushels 
of mdeached ashes and 12 bushels of Jime, slacked with water 
holding 3 bushels of salt in solution, to the acre. Transplanting 
should be done with great care, and the rootlets of the plant 
injured as little as possible. The best time to transplant is in 
spring, though with care it may be done any time during the 
summer. The lecturer said he would, in starting a new bed, 
place the plants three feet apart each way, and allow them 
to spread till they were only twelve inches from each other, 

* ]\Ir. Allen objects to any outline of his lectures on fruit or cattle-breeding 
being given in this work, as his engagements prevent his revising them. 
3 



'50 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

Nearer than this they should never grow. The beds should be 
mulched with tan-bark, straw, or some such material, to the 
depth of half an inch — no more. This keeps down weeds, and 
keeps all but the strongest runners from taking root. Water 
may be added with great advantage in large quantities, except 
during the flowering and ripening periods, provided always it 
does not stand and become stagnant on the soil. After this 
preparation little attention is needed. The hoe should never 
be used about the plants, as it injures the roots. Field culture 
differs little from garden culture. The productiveness of the 
strawberry about New York does not average more than 40 
bushels to the acre. There is no difficulty in raising 150 bush- 
els under the cultivation he recommended. In the winter the 
plants should be lightly covered. 

The strawberry may be made ever-bearing by entirely pre- 
venting the growing of runners. This may be done by jDlant- 
ing in soil composed of three-quarters river sand and one-quar- 
ter woods-mold. This dwarfs the jjlant and makes it evei'- 
bearing. The staminate and pistillate plants need not be grown 
within thirty or forty feet of each other. Seedlings are easily 
raised. The analysis of the plant differs in different places. 
The best six varieties are Wilson's Seedling, Hooker's Seed- 
ling, Longworth's Prolific, Hovey's Seedling, Burr's New Pine, 
and McAvoy's Superior. There are many others nearly as 
good. Wilson's Seedhng is very prolific ; 260 berries, many 
of them large ones, have been grown on a single plant. 



SEVENTH DAY.— Feb. 8, 1860. 

When the good Dr. Grant mounted the rostrum yesterday, 
he was greeted with loud applause ; and well hp might be, for 
he has not only the thorough acquaintance ^vith the vine which 
long years of practice impart, but he bears upon his benevolent 
face that stamp of integrity which begets confidence and re- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 51 

spect. I fear that the audience were but illy impressed with 
his real knowledge, however, for present sickness has almost 
deprived him of voice, and the lecture must have been unsatis- 
factory, because imperfectly heard. 

In preface, he alluded to the wonderful growth of wild vines 
in Avet and poor soils, but showed that not only was excessive 
growth of wood a poor recommendation to the vineyardist, but 
the quality of wild grapes is poor, and their af)parent great 
yield decejitive. All of the European vines are believed to 
have sprung from one species, and been introduced from Asia; 
while in America, the wild vines of the several districts, al- 
though Avidely dissimilar, have not been positively proved dis- 
tinct species. True, the Scuppernong, with its family of Musca- 
dines, is so peculiar that from its foliage it would scarcely be re- 
garded as a grape. The family of which the Herbemont is a type, 
is quite distinct from all others, but he believes it to be traceable 
to a European origin. Many of our native vines have been cul- 
tivated with care in the vineyard, but they have not thriven under 
the treatment so as to recommend them above, or as equal to, 
the nobler sorts. In vine culture as in other things, the great- 
est skill and care gives most favorable results, Not a quarter 
century will pass before the Connecticut farmers, at least those 
of the southern part of the State, will hail the graj^e harvest as 
the most joyous part of the year. Wine-making is an art in 
which the most complete success can only be attained through 
much accurate observation, and with great pains-takhig and 
skill ; but grape-growing for table fruit is so simple an affair as 
to be within the reach of any one who will give it the slightest 
attention. If any one thing in vine culture is more important 
than another, it is good pruning. Shoots are the growth of 
one year, and are so called from the time that the opening bud 
in spring has developed its first leaves, until it has completed 
its year's growth, and is ready for the pruning-knife. When 
cut back to one bud, the stump is called a short spur ; when 
cut to three or four, a long spur ; and when left with more 



52 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

thuu this number of buds, it is a cane, except when peculiai* 
circumstances give it a special name. When two shoots 
spring from a stump near the ground, and are destined to have 
bearing shoots grown from them, they are termed thighs; and 
such when laid liorizontally are sometimes called arms. The 
objects of pruning are : 1st. To restrain the roots and branches 
within convenient limits for cultivation. 2d. To concentrate 
the strength of the vine, and not suffer the production of use- 
less wood and foliage. 3d. To get just enough wood to bear 
full crops of good fruit, and plan its distribution with reference 
to the health of the vine. There are three kinds of buds — the 
primai-ies, which come at the axils of the leaves, or where the 
footstalk joins the shoot, and which in bearing-vines are the 
fruit-buds one season, and the next produce the shoots on which 
fruit is borne ; the secondaries, which come on the side shoots, 
or laterals, and whi(;h are removed in summer pruning ; and the 
adventitious buds, which are unseen, until they burst through 
the bark of the former year's wood. They are called wood 
shoots, as they produce no fruit except in a few varieties of 
remarkable productiveness. A bui^ch is a productive tendril ; 
a tendril an abortive bunch. The points or ends of bunches 
should be cut off, as this causes a complete ripening and sweet- 
ening of the upper grapes, and prevents the growing of shriv- 
elled berries at the point, which is a sheer waste of substance. 
If a vine is left to itself to grow, the tendency of vitality is up- 
Avard, the fruit gets beyond our reach, has a coarse quality and 
a woody flavor, while the buds near the ground soon perish, 
and no after care can revitalize them. It is scarcely possible 
to fix the duration of a Avell-set vineyard ; it may as well last 
one thousand as one hnndred, oi' a score of years. The vine 
needs moisture ever, wetness never. Nitrogenous manures are 
good if well rotted and composted, for they attract moisture, 
and a Avell-preparod grape border is never dry in even the hot- 
test seasons. 

In the evening the Doctor was put upon the stand and sub- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 53 

jected to a cross-examination of the most rigid nature. Some 
ot Mr. Allen's questions created much good-natured merriment, 
for he was evidently determined to make our lona friend, 
and his sympatliizers, give their reasons for the faith which was 
within them. The information elicited in reply to questions 
was : That table grapes of first quality could be grown more 
abundantly and surely 1^° above New York city, than else- 
where in the country. They will not reach so perfect a matu- 
rity, perhaps, as in some warmer sections, but they keep better 
throughout Avinter, which is of all the most important point. 
If ripened too early grapes lose flavor, and if the grape-grower 
is so far north that he is forced to lay down his vines through 
the winter, he is amply repaid for his trouble in increased fla- 
vor and quality of product. The best of the wine-growing re- 
gion in Germany is that where laying down in winter is requi- 
site. A favorable exposure makes a difference of almost, if not 
qviite, one degree of latitude. The best methods of laying 
down vary ; a mere covering of boards is enough to guard 
against slight frosts, but with the additional precaution of cov- 
ering with sand one is perfectly safe in the worst i)laces. But 
a slight covering is necessary — -just enough to guard against 
having the sand wash or blow ofl:" and expose the vine, and two 
or three inches of depth is enough. The whole vine should be 
covered. If the vine is as large as a mau's arm, it will still 
readily lie down, if it has been so treated from the first. Milo 
carried the bull because he commenced carrying it when a calf, 
and continued the practice. A large vine is not so liable to 
destruction by frost as a small one. At six cents per pound, 
an acre of grapes, prepared in the best manner, will yield an- 
nually $400, at an expense of $100. I'or vineyard culture, we 
can have only 75 per cent, of perpendicular vine area to 100 of 
surface area of the ground. That is to say, if our vines are set 
G feet apart, they must not be suffered to grow more than 4|- 
feet high. Sunshine is more necessary to a vine than actual 
suxface-room ; and if the vines grow more than the 75 per 



64 VAM-; At;ui(;ur/riii{.\i. i-kctuues. 

{•out. liio-h, portions will bo shiulod by tho atljacont vinos, and 
thus tlio crop bo tl:uiiai>otl. It is a bad plan to bury tho 
bodios ol" dead animals noar u;rapo-vini'S ; tlioy should bo com- 
postod with tliroo tiinos thoir bulk of inu<'l<, or liko earth, the 
yi'ar [jrovious to application to tho vineyard. Tri'iichinij; is 
H'ood in warm latitudos, booauso it <;ivos tho vino roots a cool, 
<'V('n tom[)i'raturi'. Roots should bc> froo to run downward, I'or 
il'noar tho surliico thoy got baUod to death. In iMaileira, vines 
have an averauo (h'pth of 7 foot of soil, and i!:rt)w only on hills. 

At this point, liowis I'\ Alien spoke of tho wonderful growth, 
hardini'ss, and product ivenoss of the wiUl vinos of the woods, 
and wanted to know why these now sorts, which need so much 
care and outlay, were their suju'riors. A gentleman present sug- 
gested to him, that if he (iNIr. Allen) was content with the qual- 
ity of fox-grnpes and lluir w ino, was willing to goto tho woods 
and climb sky-high to gi't them, the better sorts wore not bet- 
tor for his purposes. But, as the world is fooHsh enough to 
profci- I he CMiassolas, llaniburgh, t'atawba, Dehiware, and such 
grapes, to till* wild variety, and would pay for a bottle of llock- 
hoiuuM', C\os Vougcot, or .lohamiisbcrg, more than would buy 
an oi'cau ol' currant or fo\-grapo wine, tlu'so better grapes 
wore better for the cultivator. If we want those spUaidid 
wiiu>s, wo nuist raise the graj)os from which they are made; 
and, to do this, wo must select bi'ttor si>il, give uu)ro labor and 
eare to eullivation, and spend more n\onoy. 

Dr. («rant said, tliat altlu)ugh thorough drainage was not'os- 
sary w'here the soil w'as natuialiv wot, yet, if possible, sui'h soil 
should be avoided for one naturally draiiunl — say a ohiy loam 
ov a gravel subsoil. Drains, in nu>deratoly wet soil, wouUt bo 
likely to got ehoked with grape mots; but if water were eon- 
staully running through the (b-ains, the roots would probably 
tlio by iuunorsiou in it. He tliought that by laying tho drain- 
tiles in, and (.•oviuiug and surrounding theu\ with very ])Oor 
soil or sand, tho grape roots would not j^ass through it to tho 
drains. Tho skin o\' American grapes parts readily from tho 



YALE AGRICULTURAL J.IOCTUUES. 65 

flesh, and hence in a good table grape may bo somewhat thick- 
er than is adniissiblc in Europe, where this free i)arting is not 
found. Tlie flesh shoukl be sweet to the very centre, and the 
seeds should be very small. For family nse, where 25 feet 
length of a wall can be had, the French "Thomery" system is 
best, but for gardens the sim})le low " thigh" is perfectly 
suitable. As it is impossible to fairly describe these systems 
without the aid of cuts, I refer incpiirers to Dr. C. W. Grant, 
lona Island, near Peekskill, N. Y. 

At '2.V o'clock this afternoon Mr. Pardkk continued his lec- 
tures on the small fruits. The raspberry Avas spoken of iirst. 
Few persons, he said, had ever seen a first-rate one. The gar- 
deners about our cities do not succeed in growing them to 
perfection. This fruit likes a moist, cool situation, such as the 
north sIo[)e of a hill, or the north side of a fence. The soil 
should be made very rich ; you cannot overfeed the raspberry. 
The strawberry has a multitude of lino fibrous roots, and as it 
grows little woody fibre it requires little manure ; the raspberry, 
on the contrary, produces considerable wood, and as it has few 
fibrous roots with Avhich to take up nourishment, these should 
be well supplied. The soil should be made very fine. Plant 
about four feet apart, and cut the canes to Avithin one foot of 
the ground. At the time of planting, stake with strong stakes. 
Those! which will last forever may be made by the French 
" Burnetizing" process, which is as follows: soak the stakes 
six or seven days in a solution of blue vitriol and water, in the 
proportion of one pound of vitriol to twenty quarts of water. 
Berries raised on canes which have been carefully tied to stakes 
are much finer than those Avhicli have been left to be blown 
about by the wind. As soon as the raspberries have all ripened, 
remove the wood on which they grew and allow the sap to 
flow into the new canes, which will bear another year. Keep 
the ground clean. In the winter lay the shoots on the ground, 
and cover lightly with earth. Briuckle's Orange Seedling is 
one of the very best varieties, and is Avonderfully productive. 



56 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

The Fastolff, Franconia, and Red Antwerp are very fine. Most 
of those sokl as Red and Yellow Antwerps are spurious. The 
best everbearing varieties are the Ohio Dhick Everbearing, the 
Merveille de Four Seasons, and the Belle de Fontenay, 

The blackberry may have the same cultivation as the rasp- 
berry, and it may also be shaded by trees without injury. 
Capt. Beverly, of Needham, Mass., introduced the improved 
high-bush blackberry. The proper way to gather Lawton or 
New Rochelle berries for the family is, to jar the canes with a 
hammer, and catch the berries which fall. The others — and 
these are those sent to market — are not fit to eat. Never leave 
more than three canes in a hill, and have no suckers growing 
near the bush, if you want fruit. If you wish plants for sale, 
do otherwise, of course. Cut back your canes as soon as they 
have borne their crop, pinch off the ends of the shoots in Sep- 
tember, and again in spring ; by which plan you will throw 
the strength of the vine into fruit-bearhig on the laterals. 

The cranberry, on bog lands to which a dressing of sand has 
been added, should give fifty bushels per acre the first year 
after planting, one hundred and fifty bushels the next, and so 
on up to four hundred and fifty bushels, as a maximum. 

The gooseberry is a fine fruit for family use. With me, said 
Mr. Pardee, it has never mildcAved. I know not M'hy, unless 
it is because I grow them in the tree form, give tliem clean 
culture, and in the spring give them abundance of soapsuds. 

The whortleberry is difficult to transplant, but with care it 
may be made lo produce abundantly. 

The currant is one of our very best small fruits. Like the 
raspberry, it cannot be manured too liighly. Those who culti- 
vate only the Red or White Dutch Cun-ant, do not know what 
a good currant is. The best kinds grow to the diameter of 
five eighths of an inch, and are as much finer in fiavor as supe- 
rior in size. The following are, in my opinion, the best varie- 
ties: La Versailles, La Hative, Cherry, White Gonduoiu, and 
White Provence. 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 57 

EIGHTH DAY.— Feb. 9, 1860. 

Surely no one is better able to give a valuable lecture upon 
nursery management than the owner of the largest nursery in 
the world — no one more capable of discoursing upon horticul- 
ture than the ex-editor of The Ilortlcnlturist. What Avon- 
di'r, then, if Mr. P. Barry's lecture this afternoon sliould have 
drawn a large audience, and given satisfaction. It is this fea- 
ture, I think, that gives Professor Porter's Yale discourses 
great value, that his talkers are workers, his expounders of 
theory eminent in practical experience. To have Fitch on In- 
sects, Barry on Nurseries, Johnson on Chemistry, and Grant 
on Grapes, is like having Mott on Surgery, Palmer on Sculp- 
ture, Church on Painting, and Greeley on Journalism. And 
until you can convince me that Paul Cotter's bull is of more 
importance to the nation than Samuel Thome's Grand Duke, 
Wedgewood's pottery than the rougher sort which old Mr. 
Johnston buries underground, I must think that our agricultu- 
ral lights shine with more useful brilliancy than would those at 
the supposed convention of savans and artists. 

Mr. Barry commenced by saying that, although the subject 
of nursery management might be deemed not generally inter- 
esting, since it was a calling by itself, yet every one who in- 
tended rearing an orchard, or even a few trees upon his farm, 
should know enough of the mode of managing trees to rear 
what few he might need to supply deficiencies which might 
arise from death or other accidental causes, or at any rate to 
give to his growing orchard or plantation such good care as 
would make it most profitable. Twenty years ago, two or 
three small nurseries in the neighborhood of each of our large 
cities, occupying in all not more than five hundred acres, and 
a few other small apple nurseries of an acre perhaps each, sup- 
plied the wants of the United States and the Canadas. Now 
we have over one thousand nurseries ; and in Monroe county, 
N. Y., alone, where he resides, there are three or four thousand 



58 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

acres, producing annually $500,000 worth of trees. In the 
whole Union, there are annually sold fifteen to twenty millions 
trees, for say $5,000,000. His subject he would treat under the 
several heads of locality ; soil; arrangement ; preparation of 
the ground; 2'>ropagatio7i of stocks ; grafting; treatment of trees 
in thenursery; and digging up. A commercial nursery should 
be located near a large city, town, or village, both for the fa- 
cility of getting a supply of laboi', manure in abundance, imple- 
ments, post-oftice, and railroad, or other transportation ; and a 
preference should always be given to a fertile and prosperous 
agricultural region, for obvious reasons. 

Surface. — The surface of a nursery-ground should be nearly 
level; if sloping, the slope gentle and nearly uniform, not only 
for the convenience of working and planting in straight lines, 
but because hilly grouild is so washed in rains as to do great 
damage. Shelter. — There should be, if ])Ossible, some natural 
shelter — high ground, woodland, or orchards, to break the force 
of winds in winter and spring. If these natural shelters can- 
not be had, plant parallel belts of rapid-growing trees, such as 
spruce or larch, in the form of hedge-rows, at a distance of two 
hundred or three hundred feet apart, all over the grounds. 
Soil — should be dry and deep, neither too light nor heavy. 
Light sandy soils require heavy and frequent manuring, and 
produce weak trees ; and retentive clays give too little fibrous 
root to trees, ripen them badly, make transplanting difficult, 
and good removal almost impossible. Stony soils impede the 
])rogress of tools, and are in every way objectionable. On dry 
soils, naturally drained, trees mature tlieir wood well, and are 
therefore hardy when transplanted. The coarse-grained, rank, 
Avatery trees grown on prairie soil, freeze to the ground in a 
temperature that would not affect those ^-rown on more favorable 
ground ; it being the fluid, and not tlie solid parts of a plant, 
which are acted upon by frosts. A nui-sery needs much more 
thorough drainage than ordinary farm fields. The drains should 
1)0 never more than two rods apart, and were better to be laid 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 69 

at a depth of three and a half feet. lu a stiff, retentive clay 
Lottom, they should be only twenty feet apart. Laying out 
the Nursery. — Divide and subdivide your land into plots and 
compartments for the various articles which are to be grown ; 
assigning special places, to seedlings, stocks to be worked, cut- 
tings, layers, and specimen trees. Tliis latter plot is very 
essential to the proper management of the nursery, and the 
comfort of visitors. In this specimen plot should be grown 
one or two samples of every tree in cultivation in the nursery, 
the better to test their genuineness, quality, and constitution. 
A place should also be given to manures and composts ; and 
through the whole nursery broad roads should be made so as 
to make every part accessible. Preparation of Ground. — 
An old pasture, or clover field, is best for nursery ground, for 
the inverted sod gives just the right food for young trees. A 
broadcast, light dressing of well-rotted manure, or compost, 
should be applied before plowing. Plow very deeply, and sub- 
soil fifteen or eighteen inches, if possible. This roots your 
trees well, lets surface Avater run down, and lower moisture 
draw up, and in fact is every way requisite. Propagation. — 
Our cultivated varieties of trees cannot be propagated by seeds. 
The particular qualities which constitute their chief value are 
the result of hybridization, or of cultivation — qualities Avhich 
are not transmissible in the seed. True, we may chancQ upon 
better varieties by sowing the seed, but there are a thousand 
chances against such good fortune ; and hence we resort to 
grafting, budding, cuttings, layers, and suckers. And this 
brings us to the subject of stocks, which is a most important 
one in the propagation of fruit-trees. 

Without good stocks we caimot produce good trees, although 
our soil, situation and cultivation may have been ever so favora- 
ble. Formerly, wild, self-sown seedlings from the woods and 
orchards were thought good enougli for the nurseryman's pur- 
poses, and even poor suckers from the roots of trees were used, 
Experience has taught us better practice than this, and now tho 



60 TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

production of good stocks is the first great aim of intelligent 
cultivators. The apple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, apricot, and 
nectarine stock, are grown from seed ; but the Doucin an I 
Paradise for Dwarf Apple-trees, and the Quince for Dwarf 
Pears are usually produced from layers. We have thus tar 
been able to grow cherry and common apple stock in sufficient 
quantity for our use, but are compelled to import pear and 
plum seedlings and stocks for the dwarf j^ear, apple and cherry. 
The most important of all these is the pear, which we have to 
import largely, because in this country the young seedling is 
attacked by a fungus or blight which destroys it at a tender 
age. Although no absolute remedy for this " leaf blight" is 
likely to be hit upon, very thin sowing of seed on a deep, dry, 
fresh soil never before occupied by trees, and unremitting care 
and good cultivation during the early stages of growth, act in 
some wise as preventives against the malady. Our nursery- 
men now grow on one acre as many seedlings, especially the 
apple, pear, and plum, as should rightfully be assigned to five, 
and the result is, a growth of weak, spindling trees. Well- 
grown pear and apple stocks should be always ready for the 
nursery rows at one year old. If they are not, another year's 
occupancy of the same place will not generally add mi;ch to 
their value. Apple stocks may, perhaps, remain two years in a 
place; but pears must be transplanted. The lecturer then de- 
scribed the stocks in common use for grafting, dwelling for a 
moment to sketch the difficulties which attended the introduc- 
tion of the quince stock for dwarf pears into this country. Ex- 
jierience has established the fact that the two French quinces, 
the Angers, and Pai'is or Fontenay, are best for pear grafthig. 
The former is most vigorous, and of rapi,d growth when young ; 
the latter more hardy. Some pears succeed best on one, some 
on the other. Stocks are good when half to three-quarters of 
an inch in diameter, and can be obtained from cuttings, layers, 
or by the earthing-up practice. To obtain sti'ong stocks, phmt 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 61 

out fi certain number of stool or mother plants, in a deep, rich, 
well-prepared soil ; when they have stood one season, cut them 
all off close to the ground. The next season they will produce 
strong, smooth shoots, which the following year may be earth- 
ed up, half their length, as celery is earthed up, and in the 
fall they will have rooted well enough to bear separation 
from the parent plant. If left on during winter, the frost 
will ruin them. Such stock as these may be set in nursery 
row the next spring, and budded the same season. Only 
two crops of shoots can be taken from the same stool, and 
a good dressing of manure is necessary to get even the second. 
Pears propagated on small, weak quince stocks are worthless. 
In budding or grafting quince stocks, it should always be done 
near the ground, so that the whole of the quince may be set 
under ground without being too deep. Root-grafting, although 
still an open question among nurserymen, Mr. Barry believes 
to be, if properly performed, as good a mode for propagating 
the apple, and more especially all the strong growing sorts, as 
any other in ixse. It has been sadly abused, and thus been 
brought into disfavor with bunglers and their victims. 

Management of Young Trees. — Trees are too closely plant- 
ed, as a general thing ; three and a half feet between the rows, 
and three or four inches between the plants, is too little space 
to give either air, light, hardiness of constitution, spread of 
root, or strength of top. For apples, pears, or other trees 
which are to remain two years in the nursery row, the distance 
from tree to tree should never be less than eighteen inches for 
standards, and twenty-four inches for j^yi'^^mids ; and even at 
such distance the pruning-knife is to be freely used. Country 
people are too apt to value a nursery tree in proportion to its 
heigiit, rather than its strength and proportions^a too common 
and fatal mistake. Cutting back should be freely practised, 
and the leader or main stem should be pruned as well as the 
side branches, else one will get a tall and ill-proportioned tree. 
An enormous amount of money is annually lost to tree pui'- 



62 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

chasers from rude and unskilful taking up. Trees are torn up 
by the roots, as if the trunk and brunches were the one thing 
necessary, and the roots superfluous. The proper way is, to 
open a trench on each side of the tree with a common spade, 
keejnng the edge toward the tree, so as not to cross a root. 
These trenches should be far enough from the tree to avoid the 
main roots, and deep enough to go below all, except a tap-root, 
which may be cut off. This bemg done, the tree may be pull- 
ed up with its roots entire. 

Mr. Barry, in conclusion, spoke of the wide field which was 
still open to intelligent, industrious, and capable men, who 
would embark in the nursery business, but cautioned them against 
entering upon it for mere speculative purposes, or with dreams 
of sudden wealth, to be got as one would draw a lucky num- 
ber in a lottery. 

The morning lecture was by Prof Johnson, and the one 
after Mr. Barry's was to have been by Dr. Grant, but as he 
was too much indisposed to speak, he procured as a substitute 
Mr. Andrew S. Fuller, the Brooklyn nurseryman. Mr. Fuller 
went into the history of the grape in Europe, noticing the 
varieties which in successive ages were deemed the best. He 
showed when and how these foreign varieties were introduced 
into the United States. In the Northern States they had, al- 
most without exception, proved failures, but at the South they 
had given rise to descendants, some of good quality. Even 
with a choice grape, its quality and profit depended in a great 
degree upon the cultivation and pruning given to it. In sum- 
mer, during the season of active growth, the liquid portions of 
the sap are exhaled almost as fast as they can be absorbed by 
the roots, and no great accumulation can take place in any one 
portion of the vine. But the leaves once fallen, the roots con- 
tinue to absorb their appropriate food from the feoil, and thus 
the wood becomes quite filled with sap, which is kept in store 
for early spring use. It is therefore plain, that we should 
prune our vine as soon as the leaves drop of, that the sap which 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 63 

is afterwai'ds absorbed may all go toward the nutriment -of the 
buds which remain. 

He recommends a medium depth of planting ; that the sur- 
face or upper roots may be not less than four nor more than 
eight inches from the surface of the ground. Many of our 
strong-growing sorts, such as the Concord and Diana, can be 
brought within control by root-pruning for the two or three 
years after planting. Mr. Fuller thought that if we may judge 
from our short experience, we are warranted in the belief that 
America will produce, if it has not already, as fine grapes for 
both table use and wine-making, as the most favored countries 
of Europe, with all their centuries of experience, can boast. 



NINTH DAY.— Feb. 10, 1860. 

Whenever, in coming out of a lecture-room, you hear all 
about you i")eople saying " What a capital lecture ! " " How well 
he understands his subject ! " " How many valuable hints he 
gave IIS in the hour ! " you may be certain that it was a valu- 
able discourse ; and such was the case this mornhig, after Mr. 
Barry's second lecture on fruit-trees. Certainly I never listened 
to a more complete ej^itome of information on any one topic 
than he condensed into sixty-five minutes ; and now that I sit 
down to give your readers the gist of it, my trouble is to know 
where to commence the process of exclusion. 

The subject chosen was the " Transplanting and Management 
of Tree* in the Orchard and Garden," embracing a variety of 
oj^erations which, if followed in detail, would require a week 
instead of an hour to describe. The general remarks ui)on the 
preparation of ground for nursery trees, which were contained 
in my letter of yesterday, apply to all tree plantations. Our 
readers should remember that the important points in land 



64 TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

treatment can only be best done before the trees are set out : 
so that before we send onr orders to the nurseryman we should 
have finished our draining, subsoiling, and trenching. As to 
spring or fall planting, opinions vary, and vary chiefly because 
of different nature and conditions of soil with various tree- 
planters. Mr. Barry's experience is, that in a good, dry, well- 
prepared soil, fruit-trees may be planted at any time after the 
wood is ripe in the fall (a period indicated not by the fall of 
the leaf, but by the perfect formation of the terminal leaf-buds, 
and the changing tints of the foliage), until the freezing of the 
ground ; and, in spring, from the time when the frost is out 
and the ground dry enough to work, until the buds have made 
some considerable advancement toward opening. Generally 
the more tender trees, such as the peach, apricot, and nectarine, 
should at the North be planted in spring, as winter acts 
severely upon them after transplanting. This is the better 
mode, but fall planting of even these tender, juicy-wooded 
trees, is often successful, if precaution be used. The fall 
planter must never forget to mulch the roots with several 
inches' depth of leaf-mold, half-rotted manure, or some such 
material as will modify the action of frost on the roots and tree- 
trunk. A neglect of proper preparations for planting causes 
great loss. The majority of trees from the nursery, by unskil- 
ful removal, have mutilated roots ; if the tree were set without 
proper pruning, most of these roots would rot, and those which 
escaped would grow feebly for a long time. All these bruised 
and broken roots must be pruned close up to the sound wood 
with a sharp knife, the cut being made perfectly smooth and 
almost straight across, so as to present as little surface as pos- 
sible. Never cut the roots downward, or so as to have the 
slope on the upper side of the wood, but upward ; for in any 
other case the water would get between tlie bark and wood 
and rot off the root, while if rightly done new rootlets will be 
put forth from the root end, and all go on well. All broken 
branches must be removed, and then the whole top be reduced 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 65 

by cutting back half, or more than half, but always keeping 
the lower branches of dwarf pears and other pyramidal trees, 
longer and stix)nger than the upper ones. The tree natui-ally 
pushes its growth upward, and this tendency must be restrained 
so that you will get the bulk of fruit near the ground, thus 
avoiding top-heaviness, and liability to branch-breaking by high 
winds. Keep a due proportion betv/een root and bx'anches, so 
that there Avill always be enough root to furnish food, and no 
waste of strength in superfluous wood and leaf-production. 
We aim at getting fruit in large quantity, and of distributing 
it equally over the tree, that no one part may be overtaxed, or 
weakened. Almost ninety of every hundred tree purchasers 
set such store by the nice, long, smooth branches of their trees, 
as they come from the nursery, that they spare the knife, and 
set them out just as received. Let them beware how they are 
thus "penny wise and pound foolish," for their trees are checked 
and stinted in growth, and are left far behind others which 
have been boldly and judiciously pruned. Many persons think 
trees should be manured, like a hill of j^otatoes, at time of 
planting. Such are likely to kill their trees by overmuch kind- 
ness. Good fresh surface-soil — if light and sandy, all the better 
— is what should be put around trees at time of planting. He 
would say nothing about hole-digging, for the whole soil where 
trees were to be planted should be so well prepared that a hole 
needs only be large enough to admit the roots. The roots 
should be set about four or five inches below the surface. In 
light soils they may be set deeper than in heavy ones, because 
heat more readily passes downward. The thorough cultivation 
of the soil among fruit-trees can be neglected only at the 
planter's peril. 

In fields of grain the poor trees are smothered by their ava- 
ricious, or unwise, owners. When the rows are thirty or forty 
feet apart, almost any farm crop may be grown between, but at 
least six feet of ground beyond the extremities of the roots 
should be un planted, and kept as clean and as mellow as it 



66 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

would be about a hill of potatoes or corn. No weeds must 
exercise Mr. Douglas's squatter sovereignty privilege, unless 
one wishes to starve his trees to the extent of the food these 
I^estiferous plants consume. Remember this point, for it is of 
the utmost importance ; but in putting it into practice, remem- 
ber also, that in your hand-hoeing, or horse-hoeing, the tree 
roots must not be disturbed. A light annual dressing of com- 
post should be spread upon the surface early in winter, and in 
sj)ring forked in. Road-scrapings, ditch-bottoms, and such 
matter, are good for application to a light soil, and heavy leaf- 
mold, and decaying vegetables, with stable-manure for a heavy 
soil, are good in compost. Occasional light dressings of lime, 
ashes, and even salt, will be found beneficial. Mulching in 
summer should be very light, just enough to keej) down weeds, 
and once a week, or once a month, as the case may be, must 
be removed for as thorough a forking of the ground as can be 
given without injury to the tree roots. The object sought in 
pruning fruit-trees is to regulate their growth and bearing, so 
as to secure at once a particular form with greatest vigor and 
fruitfulness. The only instrument used in a good nursery is 
the pruning-knife ; and this should be kept so sharp that any 
ordinary branch may be lopped off at a single draw, leaving a 
perfectly smooth surface. Shears should never be used. A 
saw is only required when trees have been neglected. Branches 
removed should be cut close to the trunk, so that the tree may 
not be inj ured by the decay of a stump. Shorten shoots to a good 
strong bud that will make a leader, not too close to nor too far 
from the bud, and with a slope of cut of about forty-five degrees. 
In shortening your leader, don't always cut on the same side, 
for you would thus make the whole tree lean one way or the 
other. Pruning, rightly done, is a blessing ; wrongly, a curse. 
To show practically how pruning should be dpne, Mr, Barry 
performed the operation on several fruit-ti-ees which he had 
brought for the purpose, and I have no doubt but that the 
large audience got thus a far better idea of the modus operan- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 67 

cU than long arguments would have conveyed. I am also glad 
to learn that Mr. T. S. Gold intends to illustrate his lectures 
on sheep-breeding, by placing before us a well-shaped and a 
badly-shaped live sheep. Could anything be more admirable ? 

Standard apple trees in orchards require very little pruning. 
If the head is formed at a proper distance from the ground, 
say four or five feet, and the main branches to form the frame- 
work of the head are started in the right direction, as nearly 
as possible equally distant, inclining upward and outward, the 
subseqiient pruning will consist in removing branches where 
they are likely to become crowded or to cross each other. 
The natural growth of varieties differing, our jDruning should 
be modified to suit each special case. Apple-trees not pruned 
generally bear a heavy crop of fruit one season, and none the 
next, and so heavy is the crop that a good part of it is worth- 
less. Judicious i^runing enables us to have a moderate crop 
of fine fruit each year, besides promoting the general health 
and prosperity of the trees. A few days of a man over an 
ap]Dle orchard when the fruit is half or a third grown, will be 
well spent in removing misshapen and wormy fruit, and thin- 
ning out clusters that are crowded together. Fools cut aAvay 
branches indiscriminately, until their trees are but skeletons, 
with a few bearing branches at the extremities only. The force 
of the tree is then expended in producing a crop of rank, wa- 
tery shoots in the interior, to be again cut aAvay to make room 
for a second croj). Trees should never be suffered to bear 
fruit until they have got strength and vigor. A pruner should 
know the difference between fruit-buds and wood-buds, and at 
least the rough outlines of the principles of tree growth. This 
knowledge may be acquired by an intelligent man in a brief 
time. There are many other points of equal interest in Mr, 
Barry's lecture of which I should like to speak, but cannot. 

Doctor GrajS^t lectured first this afternoon, speaking without 
notes, and, like Mr. Barry, exemplifying the doctrines of jDrun- 
ing and vine-setting, on specimens brought for the purj^ose. 



68 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

The following directions he gave us for preparing a grape-bor- 
der in the best manner — (our readers will remember that the 
term " border " is applied to any plot of ground longer than 
wide, which is to be devoted to grapes) : 

For a trellis of vines, more than twelve feet of width is un- 
necessary, and one-third less Avill answer very well ; and it is 
desirable, but not indispensable, that half of the twelve feet 
should be prej^ared before planting. If only a width of three 
feet is prepared, three feet more should be added the next sea- 
son. To prepare the border immediately, the unfertile soil 
that lies beneath must be removed, and fertile soil put in its 
place. To do this, a trench two feet M'ide is made to the dejith 
of the mold, or fertile soil, which we will suppose to be one 
foot; if more than that, so much the better. Now, to make 
the border two feet deep, which is the least admissible, one 
foot of the subsoil must be removed. If grounds are of con- 
siderable size, this may be spread over the surface of a portion, 
so that it shall not be more than two inches in dei^li, and plow- 
ed or worked in without any innncdiate damage, but with ulti- 
mate bonetit, particularly if manure is used at the same time. 
Into the bottom of this trench the fertile soil of the adjoining 
two feet is put, and, if it can readily be had, a compost of leat- 
mold, or muck, or any vegetable decay, nnd well-rottod stable 
manure, thoroughly mixing the mass as it goes in. If sods 
from a rich pasture can be had, they may be thrown in with 
the compost to the depth of fourteen or sixteen inches for every 
foot of subsoil removed, and then the fertile soil from the next 
two feet put upon the top. Repeat this process until the bor- 
der of required dimensions is made, and tinish by putting into 
the last trench the soil that was taken from the first. If sods 
and compost are not used, other fertile soil must be obtained from 
adjoining ground, or some other quarter, to replace the subsoil 
that has been removed. At the completion of the operation, 
the ground of the border will be found to be some inches higher 
than the adjoining ground, but in two years it will settle to 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 69 

the level. This is the operation called trenching, and without 
it no garden is in condition for giving best results. For grow- 
ing strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, it is equally- 
advantageous, but with this difference, that the fruits last 
named are expected to continue perhaps only from six to twice 
six years on the same ground, while vines properly planted and 
managed have no limit to their duration, and the fruit for many 
years will constantly improve in quality and earliness of matu- 
rity. If the trenching is performed one season in advance, the 
subsoil may be put upon the top of the mold, and enriched by 
having manure thoroughly incorporated by a second or third 
spading, or by plowing, according to extent of ground. If 
ground is pi'epared in early autumn, it will be ready for vines 
in the spring ; but if in sj)ring, it will not be in the best condi- 
tion for vines before fall, without a renewal of subsoil. 

The subjects of pruning and planting Avere also fully discuss- 
ed, but my space is already exhausted, and I must leave them 
undescribed. 

In the evening, Mr. George B. Emerson, of Boston, gave a 
lecture upon " The character of the various forest trees of 
Europe and America." He alluded, in commencing, to the 
differences observed in the tree of the plain and the forest : 
the one tall and bare, the other full of limbs, and short. He 
then went on to speak of the great uses of the forest hi creat- 
ing soils. Described the lava-covered sides of Vesuvius, whei's 
the lichen first, the moss, the grass, the low shrub, small trees, 
and finally larger ones, added to and made the soil upon which 
grows the tree of 400 or 500 years. One oftice of the forest 
is thus to prepare a soil for the use of man. As forests have 
disappeared here, we have an unfavorable change of climate, 
becoming colder in winter and hotter in summer, and the 
streams become dried up. Many places, in valleys once pro- 
tected, are now open to the cold blasts, and nothing will grow 
well. A row of trees planted across the valley would mitigate 
the result in one gjeneration. He considered the more exten- 



To YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

sive means to protect by means of trees, in France, Germany, 
and England ; alluded to the advantages of forests as electrical 
conductors and condensers thus of moisture ; spoke of the vast 
stores of the sun's light and heat they annually store up, to light 
up the long evenings for man, and of the denudation or wash- 
ing away of the soil when the roots of the sturdy trees were gone. 
— Restore the forests to the tops of our hills, and the moisture 
would be restored to our air and droughts prevented. 



TENTH DAY.— Feb. 11, 1860. 

The convention assembled at 9 o'clock, and listened to an- 
other lecture by Mr. Emerson. The number of ladies in at- 
tendance was larger than at any previous session. The subject 
was " The Individual Trees of the Forest." In introducing it, 
he remarked that the feeling was comuaon that the farmer's 
was not a high occupation. There is no occupation requiring 
such large resources of knowledge. Man can only prepare 
himself for the proper culture of forest trees by studying them 
in their native woods. The cultivator of the forest tree must 
have varied knowledge; — of physics, in their higher depart- 
ments, treating of climate — for we can do a vast deal to change 
it most favorably ; of the sun's light and heat and their 
action, — a lesson seldom learned as it should be ; of elec- 
tricity and the kindred forces; of the winds and the waters ; 
of the chemistry of soils and the proper action of their 
elements ; of oxygen and hydrogen in water and the other 
organic elements found in trees ; of the laws of the at- 
mosphere, in winds, rain, and dew ; of the operation of 
manures and their adaptations. The forester must know 
what soi^s will furnish the necessary nutriment^ and to this 
end must know the composition of trees. Structural bota- 
ny, one of the most curious sciences that the genius of man 
has laid open, must be understood. So of endosmose and exos- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 71 

mose, the strange foi'ces by which food is taken into the plant ; 
of the composition of the products of plants, the formation of 
wood, and the circumstances favorable to growth ; how to 
manage the ground in preparation for planting, to select the 
place where they shall flourish, and the trees of the best form 
for planting. He must be acquainted with the friends and foes 
of each tree, both insects and birds, and with the various pro- 
cesses of layering, budding, grafting, &c. The observant fac- 
ulties are all necessary, and ought to be educated ; their neglect 
is among the most serious omissions in a farmer's education 
The objects of forest culture are to improve the land and to 
furnish materials for use in the arts. Of single trees, those are 
best which will furnish the shade we seek. The spray of some 
of our native trees, as the birches, and willows, and especially 
the maples, is most beautiful, and varies every season of the 
year, over being a source of beauty. The seeds of different 
trees foil at different times, according to their size, so that they 
may be covered up and germinate, and generally under the 
shade of the mother tree. Seedling trees must be sheltered, a 
purpose for which the Scotch or other fir is used to good ad- 
vantage. The value of leaf mould for these seedlings is well 
known. The ground for the seminary, or nursery, must be well 
prepai'ed, but need not be very deep. The best manures are 
leaves and leaf-mold, with a little of barn-yard compost, well 
rotted, and then all suflered to lie for a year exposed to the 
air. The seeds ought to be sown immediately upon gathering, 
those Avhich animals would dig up for their food excepted. Many 
seeds will not bear drying. In imported seeds, some few come up 
the first year, some the second, and others the third, whereas 
had they been immediately sown as they were taken from the 
trees, they would all have sprung up at first. The depth of seed 
phmting varies according to size, and the young trees must be 
protected for the first year or two, fron\ the sun. By transplanting 
we cut off the tap-root, and thus render it easy to remove again. 
Each soil as we advance should be poorer, till it becomes 



72 YALK AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

of the same character as that wliere the tree shall stand. 
Trees for an artiticial forest should grow close together, 
and single ones apart from each other. The oalc, which has 
been allowed to exjjand, is one of the most magnificent things 
on the face of the earth. It is a singular fact, tliat some of our 
finest trees are not to be seen growing in our own forests in 
their native perfection. To see our scarlet oak in beauty, Ave 
must see it on an English lawn. The nurseries should be kept 
free of weeds by the hoe or rake. No small part of the suc- 
cess with trees depends upon the care with which they are 
taken up, and also upon the shortness of time they are out of 
the ground. The rootlets are killed often, if dried by the sun 
or wind, and the tree has to throw them out anew. They may 
be planted on the lawn in rows, singly, or in groups. The 
land should be trenched, and supplied often with bones and 
ashes, the trees needing both phosphoric acid and potash. A 
singular fact made known by the united researches of chemis- 
try and microscopy is, that only in a liquid containing sugar, 
dextrine, and protein, can cells be formed. Only Mhere car- 
bon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and often sulphur and phos- 
phorus exist, can the first act of plant life begin. Plants gene- 
rally contain three per cent, of nitrogen. This must be added 
if the soil does not contain it. Mulching with leaves, sedge, 
grass, or rotten wood, is advantageous. Is it asked, What 
ti'ees are best for the laAvn, or near a dwelling-house, for the 
pasture, the public square, or the road-side? Every tree is 
more or less beautiful. Every tree is a picture, varying in 
color, shape, and all the accidents of vegetable life, in all the 
hours from the beginning to the end of the year. It may be- 
come an heir-loom, and ever fresh with the memory of parents 
and grand-parents gone before. Each tree has its birds, and 
insects, its ei)iphytes, parasites, and lichens. The grandest tree 
in our climate is the oak, and the longest lived. In the forests 
of Massachusetts there arc twelve species. The white oak, for 
the forest and lawn, is susceptible of magnificent development. 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 73 

The old oaks of the forests and lawns of England are worth a 
voyage across the Atlantic to see. No language can give an 
idea of their beauty and grandeur. The English elm is best for 
narrow ways, the American for broad. The former, though 
not so gracel'ul a tree, throws out its leaves earlier and holds 
them later, being in foliage from three to six weeks longer. 
The elm can speak for itself, for it is the only tree that every- 
body knows. The tulip-tree, a rapid grower, with line flowers 
and fruit; the sycamore; the Norway maple, standing the wind 
better than any other tree ; the red, white, and rock maples, 
the last the best ; the beecli, with its showy blossoms and sweet 
nuts, good for pasture, because never struck by lightning nor 
browsed upon by cattle ; the linden, and hickory, easy to trans- 
plant if the tendency to depend on the tap-root be corrected 
in the nursery; the sassafras, hornbeam, hop hornbeam, the 
locust, the horse-chestnut, and black-walnut, all have their ad- 
vantages. Two or three black cherry-trees along the outside 
of a cherry orchard, will draw the insects to themselves. The 
plane, or buttonwood, makes a conspicuous figure in all grounds, 
and was A-alued by the Greeks and Romans above all other 
trees. Birches are admirable, too, for the beauty of their bark, 
leaves, and branches. 

Professor Johnsost gave us a capital lecture on the nutrition 
of animals. The food of man in his best development, says the 
Professor, is not exclusively vegetable ; not but that from veg- 
etables he could get all the substances which he needs for his 
sustenance, but in the form of flesh they are much more con- 
densed. 

The animal? which exhibit the most intense power of mus- 
cular and nervous force are carnivorous. For the sake of flesh 
and milk as food, for wool as clothing, and for the useful labor 
which the ox and horse furnish, the farmer seeks to convert 
vegetable into animal produce. By the aid of cattle, not only 
can man convert the grains, fruits, and esculent roots into a 

more concentrated and vigorous diet, but he can manufacture 
4 



74 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

food out of naturally growing grasses, and employ hundreds 
of otherwise refuse matters for the same object, A diagram 
exhibited by the lecturer showed the composition of a pig when 
fat and lean, thus: 

Fat — Per Cent. Lean — Per Cent. 

Water 45 60 

Albuminoids 15 17 

Fat 37 21 

Mineral matter, or ash 3 2 

Total 100 100 

The carbo-hydrates — starch, sugar, cellulose, gum, &c. — are 
changed by the animal into grape sugar, and are then ready to 
be assimilated to build up its body. The grape sugar is chang- 
ed into lactic and butyric acids, and thence into fat. The mine- 
ral matters found in the bones, blood, and other portions of 
the body, are of course obtained from the plants, which in their 
turn suck them fiom the soil. In some districts, such as that 
about Lcii)sic, some of these necessary minerals are deficient in 
the soil ; and it has often been observed, that where phosphate 
of lime is not in the form soil in sufficient quantity, cows suffer 
from bone disease, and will gnaw any old bone that they may 
find lying on the ground. Animal force and heat, like steam, 
are generated by the actual combustion of material ; in the 
former cases this being food, in the latter fuel. The "fire- 
place" in the animal is all over its body, wherever a pin-prick 
will draw blood. As in the steam engine, the amount of mus- 
cular and nervous force in the animal is proj^ortionate to the 
amount of fuel or food consumed. First, material is stored up 
in the tissues for use, and then every exertion of the muscles 
or brain is accompanied by an oxydation, or burning of the 
tissues. In this process, carbonic acid, water, and a small 
quantity of ammonia, are given off — the remainder of the am- 
monia buing transformed into urea, and voided from the body. 
An engine is merely a mechanism for using an engendered 
force, but the animal is itself consumed, and must be renewed 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 75 

constantly. Whenevei" the time arrives that the vital force is not 
enough to supply the waste, decay, and then death, come upon 
us. A degree of heat that would destroy animal tissue, when 
separated from the animal, is necessary in the body to sustain 
life itself. Tliis heat is engendered by using the carbo-hydrates 
and fats of food ; but these contain no nitrogen, and hence 
they will not strengthen our bodies, although they do Avarm 
them. When in a state of rest, the muscular and nervous tis- 
sues are but little wasted, but the fat is consumed in heating. 
When, however, an ox or man labors, or a man thinks, the 
muscular and nervous substance is consumed. A good Avarm 
stable, or other means of giving external heat to our animals, 
is a much cheaper way to maintain the requisite animal heat 
than to overfeed with corn and oats. Oil is a necessary ingre- 
dient in food, and the addition of fatty matter, when not nat- 
urally present in sufficient quantity in it, helps digestion, and 
thus promotes the growth of the animal. A German farmer 
proved this by feeding some stock on food that contained but 
little oily matter, and comparing their daily weight with the 
greater weight they afterward attained when fed ui)on a more 
fatty diet. For man's food, cooking is a great assistant to di- 
gestion, for it commences chemical changes which woidd have 
to be brought about in the stomach, and would thus abstract 
from his store of vital force a considerable amount of what 
he might have used in muscular exertion. The young growing 
animal needs an easily digestible food, — food which contains 
a large amount of bone material. Milk is by analysis found to 
be of just this character, and hence we see the admirable pro- 
vision of nature in this respect. 

The afternoon lecture was by Mr. Lutiikr II. Tuckkr, of 
The Country Gentleman, who, having devoted the whole of 
last summer to an investigation of British and French farming, 
was deemed the suitable person for giving us a lecture upon 
this interesting topic. Mr. Tucker ia another of our rising 



76 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

young men, and already gives i)romise of doing much toward 
bringing about the needed reform in our farm practice. 

Mr. Tucker commenced with some remarks upon the English 
climate and soil. The former is such that while, on the one hand, 
Indian corn will seldom ripen, and the pear, the peach, the tomato, 
the melon, and cucumber, and similar fruits, require artificial heat 
to eftect their perfect development ; on the other, there is not 
a month in the year when the plowman and his teams are not 
actively at work. Of the soil, it had been said that while com- 
paratively little is really very good, one-thirteenth part resists 
all attempts at cultivation, and two-thirds of the remainder is 
so stubborn and ungrateful that it tries the skill and ingenuity 
of the cultivator. He then spoke of the progress which Great 
Britain has made during the last half century, in population and 
wealth, A recent report of the Registrar-General showed that 
the natural increase of the former now averages over one 
thousand souls every twenty-four hours, while the growth of 
the latter may be estimated from the computation published a 
year or two since in London, that the grand aggregate profits 
of English industry amount each year to tivo hundred and fifty 
millions of dollars (-|2r)0,()()(),000). There is a national predi- 
lection among all classes of the people for country life — a kind 
of taste which it might be hoped that we should prove to have 
inherited, when the fever of our younger life should make way 
for moi'e of the discrimination of cooler manhood — a taste there 
manifested not only by the attention -with which men of wealth 
regard horticultural embellishments, and the interest taken by 
Parliament and the whole country in equestrian im])rovement, 
including the races, and in sporting — but also in the more prac- 
tical direction of actually increasing the productive power of 
the land. So important did this taste appear to Lavergne, the 
French author, that he did riot hesitate to pronounce it "the 
chief cause of her [England's] agricultural Avealth." Prince 
Albert's farming was referred to as an example in point, as 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 77 

well as the expenditures often made in the cause of agriculture 
by wealtliy gentlemen and commoners. 

In a general view of " English agriculture," then, if tliero 
Av^ere not practical lessons afforded for immediate imitation, a 
pei-vading influence could not but be felt thi'oughout, calculated 
to lead our farmers to a more intelligent appreciation of their 
calling and its duties. The first cause of its advancement was 
undoubtedly the abundance of wealth and the compact popula- 
tion of the island. Next came the national taste to turn this 
wealth into rural channels, and thirdly, a necessity for enlarged 
production, which had directed both wealtli an 1 t iste to prac- 
tical objects. Up to a period within forty years, t!ie object 
in view by English agriculturists had been to reclaim waste 
lands. A Committee of the House of Commons, in 1797, after 
protracted investigations, calculated the area thus brought un- 
der inclosure during the eighteenth century at about 4,000,000 
acres ; and under the impulse of war prices from 1800 to 1820, 
there are statistics to show that 3,000,000 acres more were 
added to the dominion of the plow. Then came a falling olF; — 
comparatively little has since been done in this direction, and, 
since 1840 particularly, the aim of English agriculture has been, 
not to enlarge the productive average of the island, but to in- 
crease its acreable production. 

Some of the agencies by which this had been partially, and 
was constantly being more fully accomplished, he hoped to 
illustrate before concluding. Previously he alluded briefly, in. 
the fourth place, to the three classes engaged more or less 
directly in English agriculture — the proprietors, the tenantry, 
and the laborers. " England and Scotland," wrote Philip 
Pusey, so long the editor of the Royal Agricultural Society's 
Journal^ " are the only countries with a class of cultivators 
possessing suflicient capital to stock farms of a good size at 
their own risk, paying a certain yearly sum to the proprietor." 
In fact, the farming capital, other than the ownership of the 
land, is almost wholly \x\, the hands of the tenants, and, in many 



78 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

instances, even the park-grazing about the mansion of the land- 
lord is let out, as well as the arable land. The tenants are often 
men of such wealth that they would probably live upon their 
resources in this country, except so far as they might be en- 
gaged in looking after their investments. The average interest 
obtained by landlords upon the cash value of their land, high 
as the rents appear to us, perhaps rarely exceeds three per cent. 
Farmers expect to invest their money in agriculture so as to 
make it pay them ten per cent, if possible ; — the average profit 
they realize may vary from eight to ten per cent. Really, it is 
only a very rich man who can afford to own land in England, 
and several instances were given to show how property there 
gravitates toward the country, including a farmer mentioned 
by Mr. Colman, who Avas paying an annual rent of 135,000 ! 

Taxes and tithes are to be added to the rents the farmers 
pay, these rents varying from a dollar or two per acre, under 
the least favorable circumstances, to ten, twelve, and fifteen 
dollars for choice locations in good farming districts, and reach- 
ing for the whole island an average of six dollars. Some of 
the Scotch moors are rented according to the number of sheep 
they will carry per acre, at so much per head for the sheep. 

During the eighty years preceding Mr. Caird's investigations 
in 1850-51, it was found that the rents of twenty-six counties 
had increased a little more than one hundred per cent., Avhile 
the wages of laborers showed an advance of thirty-four per 
cent. ; the price of bread was about the same ; meat had appre- 
ciated seventy per cent., butter one hundred per cent., and 
wool still more. The production of wheat only showed an 
advance from the average of twenty-three bushels per acre 
reported by Arthur Young, to that of twenty-six and a half 
reported by Mr. Caird — an explanation of which is found in the 
fact that only the very best fields were then put into wheat, 
while now the area on which it is grown is immensely increased, 
and the whole, bad and good, made to yield fifteen per cent, 
more than the selected parts did previously. 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 79 

A brief recapitulation of the measures to which English agri- 
cultiu-e probably o^yes its progress was then given, — including 
among earlier improvements, root crops, rotation, the sowing 
of grasses and clovers, and the imperfect drainage of the land 
by open ditches or otherwise, as the most prominent ; among 
later ones, the increased use of machinery and bet?ter imple- 
ments, purchased fertilizers, and food for stock; the deeper 
drainage of the land by tile and pipe ; and, perhaps most prom- 
inent of all, the improvement effected in the different races ol 
domestic animals, and the increased attention given to feeding 
them for the sake of their manure. 

A brief account followed of a visit upon a Hertfordshire farm 
where one of Fowler's steam-plows was in operation. The 
Norfolk or four-course system was there practised, extended 
sometimes over a fifth year by retainiug the clover-crop a second 
season, or, if the land was in good order, by adding a grain 
crop, generally oats. The remainder of the hour was devoted 
to a narrative of some of Mr. Mechi's modes of farming — an 
account of his method of feeding, stabling, and managing his 
manures, and a statement of the crops he has obtained at Tip- 
tree Hall. 

Mr. Mechi went on to this farm fifteen or twenty years ago, 
when he gives the place rather a hard character. " Almost 
surrounded by barren heath," he found the land so retentive 
of water that a large part of it was constantly in a state vary- 
ing in consistency " between putty and bird-lime, according to 
the season." He sold half of it, determined to get as much as 
possible out of the remainder, and went on to make such ex- 
penditures as really frightened sober and practical men ; he 
iinderlaid his fields with pipes, conveying manure in a liquid 
form by means of hydrants to every part of the farm ; and 
now, not only all the stable manure, but also guano is dis- 
tributed by steam pumps through this channel, — and even the 
carcasses of dead horses and cattle are put into the same tanks, 
macerated by degrees, and sprinkled out through the hose. 



80 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

His average crops of wheat are now forty-six to forty-eight 
bushels per acre; of oats, not far sliort of ninety ; of barley, 
not more than fifty. His cattle are fed on sparred floors, with- 
out bedding of any kind — all their food cut and cooked. He 
says that he don't use straw more generally in feeding because 
it is not naturally in condition to be very nutritive ; but when 
cooked, he states that every hundred pounds of straw is shown 
to contain the equivalent of eighteen and a half pounds of oil. 
Straw for manure is worth to him only two dollars thirty-three 
cents per ton, while for fodder it is worth five dollars ; and, as 
he raises about two tons of straw per acre, this difierence is 
of enough consequence to him almost to turn the scale between 
loss and profit upon each acre under a grain crop. 

Mr. M.'s cooking apparatus consists of "a number of cast-iron 
pans, or coppers, each capable of containing 2,50 gallons," set in 
brick-work, so as to stand level with the floor, and heated by 
waste steam, from the engine, admitted into a four-inch space 
about them. The fodder is cut to quarter-inch length, at a cost 
of from 50 cents a ton for cutting hay by steam to $1 per ton 
for straw. In feeding roots, they are first cut by machine, and 
then " mixed in the manger with the warm steamed chafl*." 

As to rotation of crops, Mr. Mechi, in common with most of 
the " high farmers " whom the si^eaker had met, apparently re- 
gai'ded this as altogether a secondary consideration after a farm, 
once attains a certain pitch of ])roductiv)eness. 

The difticulty which high-farming is most puzzled to over- 
come is, the "laying" or lodging of the crop. The moment 
the condition of the land reaches a certain point, its yield can 
be no farther increased, because the amount of soluble silica 
to glaze the straw appears to fail, and the risk from this cause, 
together with the difticulty of keeping the ground clean, pre- 
sents an obstacle nearly or quite insurpassable. 

An extra lecture was given in the evening, by Mr. Quinby, 
on Bee-Keeping. In the first place he proceeded to answer the 
Yankee's characteristic question, " Will it pay ?" By a very 



TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES, 81 

conclusive array of facts and figures he demonstrated that with 
intelligent management no investment is more remunerative. 

The best season for moving bees is from the first of October 
to the first of April. They should not be moved during the 
summer, as the bees will, many of them, leave the hive, and the 
combs being soft are liable to injury. In preparing for moving, 
the apparatus should be covered Avith muslin, and the hive in- 
verted to prevent the combs from becoming detached. 

In purchasing, see that the hive contains sufficient honey to 
carry the bees through the winter, perhaps thirty pounds, and 
also that you have a large number of bees, which is indicative 
of health. 

He warns those not experienced in bee-keeping against com- 
plicated patent hives. The management of the old-fashioned 
box hive is simple and understood by all. There is much hope 
howevei", that the patent of Mr. Underhill, of New York, will 
be so perfected as to be a real improvement. Mr. Harbison's 
hive has many advantages, which were given in detail. 

The hive should be so constructed as to be protected from 
the cold north and west winds. It should not be near a body 
of water, as bees which are heavily laden are thus often drowned. 
The hive need not be more than a few inches from the ground. 

For hiving bees, he described an easily-constructed contriv- 
ance, which dispenses with the necessity of climbing to fear- 
ful heights where the bees may have alighted. 

The methods of obtaining the honey without destroying the 
bees and injuring the honey, are quite simple and desirable. 



ELEVENTH DAY. -Feb. 13th, 1860. 

To-day Mr. Tucker gave his second lecture on English Ag- 
riculture, to an audience larger than usual. 

Mr. Tucker's lecture was a continuation of his subject of yes- 
terday, and was interesting and practical. 
4* 



82 TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

He remarked that, deferring until another opportunity a 
summary of the ground ah'eady covered, he would endeavor to 
describe briefly one or two extensive farms against the man- 
agement of which it was less likely that a charge could be 
brought of any " higher farming" than was consistent with 
profit, or within the reach of others similarly situated. Un- 
doubtedly there was bad farming in England, as well as in this 
country ; there was, also, a small class of those whose opera- 
tions were bolstered up on unusual capital, of whom Mr, Mechi 
would answer as an example, and who could not therefore be 
regarded exactly as fair specimens of the practical man in the 
present condition of English husbandry. He had enjoyed the op- 
portunity, however, of visiting several who might justly rank as 
such, and could only regret that the necessities of the case then 
compelled the entire omission of much in which an interest would 
be felt by practical farmers in this country, and the very imper- 
fect survey of the instances to which time allowed an allusion. 

" Butley Abbey," and one or two other forms, altogether 
including 3,000 acres in the county of Suffolk, occupied by Mr. 
Thomas Crisp, together with the operations upon it, Avere first 
considered, A description was given of the sheep-walks, and 
the system of sheep-husbandry practised. The " four-course" 
system is generally adhered to, but a " stolen crop" of turnips 
is sometimes obtained — the seed drilled upon the wheat stub- 
bles, and the roots fed off in the late autumn and succeeding 
spring, and the next crop in the course being mangolds. The 
quantity of mangolds grown is increasing, compared with tur- 
nips, so far as his observations extended in Great Britain. 

The sheep of that part of England are prolific mothers and 
good milkers, and are consequently in demand. Mr. C. had a 
flock of about 2,000 breeding ewes, with which he puts a 
Leicester or Southdown " tup." The lambs it is his practice to 
sell, the autumn after they are one^year old, or indeed any time 
during that season according to circumstances ; and the price 
received for them varies with age and quality, from $7,50 all 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 83 

the way up to 115 per head. The lambs are dropped about 
March, and when they are ready to wean after harvest, are put 
out upon the stubbles to eat the " seeds" that were sown in the 
spring, and at night perhaps folded upon a turnip field as soon 
as the latter is ready. But Mr. C. keeps a great many sheep 
out a-boarding, as we might express it ; that is, there are many 
smaller farmers, who do not have the means of keeping a large 
flock the year round, and who are glad to take in those of their 
neighbors both upon their stubbles and to eat their turnips. 
For the lambs thus sent out upon stubbles on other farms, 
about 3 cents a head per week is paid. The price paid for tur- 
nip land is in the neighborhood of 6 cents a week for each head, 
though it varies with the character of the crop, &c. ; when it 
does not exceed this price, Mr. C considers that there is room 
for profit to the owner of the sheep. Sometimes he has fl^ocks at 
a distance of 50 miles or even more, and a great advantage of 
this method to the small farmer, arises from the fact, that while 
the few sheep he would want to keep might be all winter 
in eating his turnips ofi", if 500 or 600 come upon his fields 
at once, they are all cleared by Christmas and ready for jjIow- 
ing. 

In a train on the way into Lincolnshire Mr. Tucker met a 
farmer of that county who had sheared, the preceding spring, 
1,200 sheep, a large number for a farm of eight hundred and 
fifty acres. He had mentioned also the practice which some 
of us have advocated and others decried so strongly — that of 
spreading the manure upon the wheat-lands some time before 
plowing up the stubble of the clover crop, and permitting it to re- 
main in exposure ; a method of which he was strongly in favor, 
and which has been long and successfully practised by John 
Johnston and others in this country. 

The next visit spoken of was at Aylesby, also in Lincolnshire,, 
the residence of Mr. Torr, a noted Shorthorn breeder, and ex- 
tensive farmer. He cultivates about 2,100 acres, mostly of 
" fen" land, although not of that lower kind requiring dramage 



84 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

by steam or wind power. He was an ardent believer in deep 
drainage, and had spent during the year before not less than 
$10,000 for oil-cake, guano, and artilicial manures. lie had 
500 acres in wheat, 250 in barley, 100 in oats, 415 in mangolds 
and turnips, 335 in artificial, and the remainder in permanent 
grass. He annually shears about 2,000 sheep, and has an 
annual show and " letting" of breeding " tups." His average 
crop of wheat is nearly 40 bushels per acre (say 36 to 38), bad 
years with good, and he thought that the whole county would 
be from 30 to 32. 

Some remarks followed upon the expense incurred by Eng- 
lish farmers to remove quack, couch, or twitch grass, as it is 
variously called, and the presence of which is considered inimi- 
cal to any crop. A description of the mode of plowing advo- 
cated by Mr. Melvin, an intelligent gentlemen and farmer in 
Mid-Lothian, then succeeded. The important points in the 
construction of the ploAv were such a medium length in the 
mold-board as not to break up the furrow-slice too much, as 
it will if it is too short, and, on the other hand, not to polish 
off its exposed surface too smoothly, instead of leaving it so 
rent and torn that the elements Avill act properly in the disin- 
tegration of its particles. Above all, however, a ploAv should 
turn a clean furrow, for if the earth anywhere adheres to the 
mold-board, the friction wastes power, the furrow is imperfect- 
ly turned, weeds are not covered in, and the old surface is not 
well turned under. 

On the Tay, opposite the noted Carse of Gowrie, he had 
found a seven-year course of rotation in vogue, viz. : 1, wheat ; 
2, barley, 3, grass; 4, oats; 5, potatoes, or beans; 0, Avheat; and 
lastly, turnips. The soil is so stiff that a very good drain is 
made by simply digging a channel of several inches' depth with 
a shoulder on each side of it, in the bottom of the drain, and 
covering it (the channel so formerl) with flat stones; this being 
nothing else than the "shoulder drain" already described by 
Judge French. Grain appeared to be more generally sown 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 85 

broadcast than clrilled in Scotland. The women were at that 
time at work reaping; five women with sickles, to one man 
binding, and the whole gang paid 12 shillings sterhng, say |3 
per acre. 

One of the last visits before leaving England had been made 
in quite an opposite direction, namely, among the hop-gardens 
of Kent. As there was one lecture in the course devoted to 
that plant, he gave a few facts in regard to the general system 
of farming pursued. The farm he had seen was one of two 
hundred and seventy acres, and a vineyard rotation was prac- 
tised. For example : 1, turnips ; 2, barley, or oats ; 3, wurtzel; 
4, wheat ; 5, red clover ; 6, wheat ; 7, barley, or oats ; 8, beans, 
or peas; and 9, wheat — thus securing five white crops, three 
of them wheat, to four green crops. To take this rotation from 
the beginning, the turnip crop will have been preceded by 
Avheat ; after that was harvested, a kind of plow or cultivator, 
called a broadshare, was passed over the land, a flat point 
eighteen inches wide being carried about three inches below 
the surface, not turning over the ground at all, but cutting off 
the roots, and killing the weeds. By this operation and the 
subsequent harrowing, the ground is so stirred that the seeds 
of noxious plants, as well as those self-sown by the last crop, 
will vegetate. Immediately after the broadshare, the harrow 
is twice used to free the ground from the stubble, which is 
gathered in rows every fifteen or twenty rods, according to 
quantity, and if thought worth the labor, or in default of straw 
enough, this is carried to the yards, to be trodden into manure ; 
otherwise it is burnt. A second plowing takes place, if possi- 
ble, before the middle of October, say eight inches deep, bury- 
ing any vegetation that has started, and throwing the soil into 
furrows as rough as possible, in order that the frost may act 
upon it ; for the rougher and the lai'ger lumps in which it lies, 
the better will a spontaneous disintegration be effected during 
whiter. The next process is a plowing the last of March or the 
first of April, after which the land is harrowed twice, and roll- 



86 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

ed. The second spring plowing is done with the broadshare, 
and after another harrowing and rolling, the manure is carted 
out and spread, and plowed in six or seven inches deep. Then 
there is another harrowing and rolling, and the land lies about 
a fortnight, when, if the weather is dry, the broadshare may be 
once more emj^loyed, Swede turnips are sown about the first 
week in July, and white turnips about the third week — about 
half and half of each being grown. If mangolds was the crop, 
the preparation of the land for it would be similar, except that 
one plowing would be omitted, as the seed is sown the second 
week in May. 

The lecture was concluded with an extended and detailed 
statement of the notes gathered at Burley Hall, the residence 
of Thomas Ilorsfall, Esq., whose experiments in stock-feeding 
and in dairy management have attracted so wide attention. A 
minute account was given of his fields, meadows, and pasture, 
of his farm buildings, his dairy room, &c. Upon not quite 
sixty acres of land he was keeping the following stock : 

Heifers and Bullocks 21 I Old Sheep 64 

Milch Cows 20 I Lambs 106 

Likewise, 4 pigs, 2 horses and a pony. 

Being a total, small cattle and large, of 218 head. 

The interest of this farm is chiefly in its stock and in its grass 
fields. The sheep (ewes) Mr. Horsfall genei'ally purchases in 
October, to the number of say fifty; paying about $11 25 
apiece. Fifty-nine, a cross of the Cheviot male on Leicester 
ewes, procured in the autumn of 1858, had brought him the one 
hundred and x; lambs he had to sell in 1859. These were sold 
before the ; of July, the purchaser taking any before if he 
chose, at al)>'.it $G each. The ewes are fattened and sold in 
the fall, fetching about |12 25 each, being $1 advance on the 
purchase money, she having brought him during his posses- 
sion of her a lamb and a fleece besides. The bullocks fattened 
on the farm are bought in April or May, grazed through the 
summer, stall-fed in the early autumn, and sold in November. 



TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 87 

Cows are generally bought just after the second calving, 
though a good cow is bought at three or four years old and at 
any season. They are milked from three to four years; though 
only the longer period when their good qualities seem to war- 
rant it. They go dry from two to three months in the year, 
and by skill in selection they average twenty quarts per day, 
when fresh. The breed preferred is a cross, half Shorthorn 
and half Highland, a sort plenty in that vicinity. He generally 
pays about $75 per head. The cows are kept in good order, 
Mr. Horsfall maintaining that his success depends on this, and 
that at the end of a cow's sixth year, when her milking quali- 
ties begin to fail, he has an animal ready, by a little "finish- 
ing,'' for the butcher, thus getting both the milk-man's and the 
stall-feeder's profit out of the same animal. But it is the man- 
agement of the pasture and meadow-lands which claims our 
special attention. Fourteen acres of meadow can pasture 
twenty cows and twenty-four sheep, with a little assistance, 
till the middle of October. Another lot of twenty acres, every 
foot of which the cattle will eat, has usually supported one 
bullock and a sheep and a half to each acre. To these pastures 
the stock is not admitted until the grass is well up, this being 
a security against drouth. Previous to this they graze in the 
mowing lands, which are cut down close by them, but which 
produce at the end of June two tons and a half to the acre, 
besides a second crop, or after-math. 

The best pasture is a deep alluvial loam, but the meadow, 
an irrigated one, is a thin soil, and a stony clay. The irriga- 
ting water is the sewerage of the village of Burley flowing into 
a small brook which is turned on to the meadow at the highest 
point, and conducted in channels to all parts of it. It runs on 
during the winter; is turned off in the spring to allow of graz- 
ing ; turned on again to start the grass, then off to harvest it, 
and on again to start the second crop. The "little assistance" 
which the pastures have in supporting these animals, is a small 
quantity of cooked food, when the feed begins to fail in Au- 



88 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

gust, given to the cows. They are stabled at night, and receive 
a " foddering " of grass often cut from the pasture itself, where 
the droppings of the animals have caused a growth too rank to 
be eaten in the field. In the hot season the animals are stabled 
during the day, and let out to graze in the night. Of grasses, 
Mr. Horsfall prefers the poas and festucas — what is there call- 
ed meadow grass, being the best known variety of the former 
genus. All his lands are drained ; the lines of tile running 
eight yards apart and three to four feet deep ; the latter depth 
being preferred, 

A description was given of one of the stables for feeding, in- 
cluding the measurements made upon the spot. The roof is of 
slate, with a thatch underneath. The stalls are about three 
feet nine inches wide, and the cattle fastened by sliding rings 
and stanchions about a foot back from the manger. At the 
ujjper part of the stall lies a cocoanut mat, about three feet 
square, with straw underneath, the whole fastened securely 
down. Behind this mat, the only bedding the animal has is a 
grate, allowing the passage of the manure into a tank under- 
neath, which tank is accessible from the outside of the building. 

The manure removed from this tank is mixed with the scrap- 
ings of the road and the cleanings of the ditches, and applied 
to the meadows at the rate of a dozen loads to the acre, just 
previous to a shower. There being no straw or coarse mate- 
rial, it is immediately washed in. The time of manuring the 
meadows is as soon after mowing as the weather is suitable, 
and for the pastures the winter season. Liquid manure is also 
applied to the spots of the pasture Avhere the grass is coarse or 
wiry, and also to spots comparatively bare. Three or four 
doses are given during the winter, but if there is an excess of 
liquid manure, it is poured into the stream which irrigates the 
meadows. The manure from an animal, if properly cared for, 
is estimated on this farm at $2.5 per year. In regard to the 
use of liquid manure, Mr, Horsfall disagrees with Dr. Voelcker's 
theory, published in the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal, 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 89 

that "soils containing a fair i^roportion of clay, especially stiff 
clay soils," are not benefited by its application. The expe- 
rience of Mr. H. is to the contrary. Dr. V. also advocates di- 
luting liquid manures; Mr. H. objects, and thinks the former 
draws his conclusions too exclusively from the Flemish farm- 
ers of Belgium. 

The food for winter feeding is steamed, the rations for each 
cow being — rape-cake, 5 pounds; bran, 1^ pounds; malt 
combs, 3|- pounds; Indian meal, 1 jwund; with straw, cut to ^ 
inch in length, 10 to 12 pounds. This mixture is dampened, 
care being taken in this particular, as the laxative qiialities de- 
pend on the amount of moisture it contains, and then steamed 
one hour. The materials are changed according to the price. 
The weekly cost of this cooking is four cents per head, — one 
man, with a little helj) in milking, having the charge of twenty 
cows. The price at which the milk is sold is four cents per 
quart, and as the demand does not always come up to the sup- 
ply, the remainder is used for butter-making. 

Everything he had seen of Mr. Horsfall's practice, in fine, 
could not be regarded as less instructive than his essays have 
been, and the two consulted together, furnish facts of univer- 
sal value, and hints as well capable of being turned to good 
account here as in England. 

At 7^ in the evening, Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr., of Boston, 
gave a very fine lecture upon " The Profits of Farming and the 
Position of the Farmer." To 20,000 lawyers, and 100,000 mer- 
chants in our country in 1840, there w^ere 2,400,000 farmers, 
and the number would not fall short of 3,000,000 now. The 
first question always asked about farming is. Will it pay ? Will 
the returns for all my labor be remunerative ? He then pro- 
ceeded to consider the gentlemen farmers who work for amuse- 
ment, as not coming jiroperly within the category. And there 
the contrast was strikingly drawn between the English or Con- 
tinental farmer, whose rents and taxes are enormous, and who 
farm at the worst advantage, and the free noble American cul- 



90' YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

tivator of the soil. The fii'st error in New England is in keep- 
ing the accounts too loosely. Not one farmer in ten knows 
what it costs to raise a cow or a crop of corn. In England an 
exact account is kept with every field. Another error is the 
want of economy in modes of farming. Two things are re- 
quired for successful farming — intelligence and capital, "Ex- 
periment," says Liebig, " is a question put to nature, and the 
result is her answer," Two things, labor and manure, are also 
necessary for a large return. It has been said that the requi- 
sites for success are three : First, manure ; second, manure ; and 
third, MANURE, The real profits of the farm arise from the cir- 
culating capital. An English farmer who had just leased a 
farm for $8,000, spent $00,000 for stock, tools, seeds, &c. A 
farmer can't afford to own bank stock, for he wants the money 
in his business. All the manure that is requisite should be the 
product of the larm. Dr. Dana, of Lowell, ascertained that 
each cow gives, when housed, seven cords of manure annually, 
and when mixed with two cords swamp muck or peat to one of 
manure, would give 21 cords of dressing equal to that of the 
barn-yard. It is worth from $5 to $8 per cord. The milk the 
same cow would give would be worth at the outside $65.76, 
while the manure would be worth from $105 to $168, and this 
is usually lost. Mr. Quincy then drew a parallel between the 
wealthy mercliant and the successful fiirmer, making the aver- 
age life of tlie latter double that of the former, and he also 
carrying out more fully the designs of the Creator, and finding 
health and happiness the truer recompense. He closed with 
an eloquent tribute to the worth of the American Farmer, and 
his value now, as in Revolutionary days, to our common re- 
public. 



YALE AGRICULTUEAL LECTURES. 91 



TWELFTH DAY.— Feb. 14, 1860. 

Judge Henry F. French, of New Hampshire, told us, on 
being lirst introduced to the Convention, that he was not an 
orator ; but liis audiences of yesterday and to-day are, if I may 
judge from their expressions at the close of the two discourses, 
convinced that he is possessed of the eloquence of facts, more 
useful to us than the other glittering qualification. He com- 
menced this morning by saying a good thing boldly, viz. : that 
open ditches obstruct good husbandry, a fact which the oppo- 
nents to covered drains would do well to remember. Open 
ditches occupy much land needlessly ; they cause constant turn- 
ing at headlands ; their influence on the area of soil is not uni- 
form, as the parts nearest them are dried while the rest is left 
as wet as ever ; in heavy rains not only is much soil washed 
into them, but, along with it, manure that at labor and expense 
has been applied ; their banks washing away, the bottoms soon 
get filled up, and require frequent cleaning out ; and their 
sides and boundary strips aflbrd a refuge to weeds, and a home 
to rats, mice, and other vermin. Sometimes, as "headers" to 
cut ofl" the inflow of water to a field, they may be of use ; and 
again, on very level land, a great canal-like ditch may be em- 
ployed, in lieu of a natural water-course, to receive the drain- 
age of a farm ; but these are the exceptions to a general rule. 
The various kinds of drains were in turn described, the lecturer 
observing that there might be circumstances where tiles could 
not be had, and thence these several substitutes could be tol- 
erated as makeshifts. In brush drains, the durability of the 
material depends not so much upon its keeping nature as on the 
physical and other character of the soil. Thus, he had known 
an instance of white-birch, which one would think would decay 
in a year, having remained in a brush drain for six years almost 
as fresh as when cut. 

The reason for its presei'vation was, that it had been sub- 



^2 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

merged in water continually. Into brush-drains soil very easily 
falls, and soon here and there the superincumbent mass caves 
in, sometimes to such an extent that a wagon-load of dirt is 
required to fill the sinks ; mice and moles work into them, too, 
and at best they are poor concerns. The mole-plowing now 
practised on Western prairies is, for a new country where land 
is so cheap, and where a sticky clay sub-soil underlies whole 
districts, a tolerably good plan. It lias been known and j^rae- 
tised in England since almost the time of Methuseleh. Major 
Dickinson of Steuben county, New York, has gotten up one 
of these ancient mole-plows, and dubbed it " the Shanghae." 
Drains are made in some " wooden countries," by laying two 
stout poles at bottom and one on them. In Scotland they have 
in some benighted sections a "shoulder" drain, which consists 
in digging down, say 18 inches wide, to a certain depth, and 
then cutting the rest of the Avay down only one-third as wide ; 
thus making a narrow box drain in the ground on the shoulders 
of which inverted stiff sods are laid as a covering, and the soil 
filled up to tlie surface upon them. Stone drains he esteems 
next in utility to tiles, but there is gre'at choice in their con- 
struction. The best way of all is to set up one course of slab 
stones perpendicularly against the right bank, and then leaning 
other stones against them, making a drain shaped like a single- 
pitch shed-roof If the stones are deliveretl to a former at the 
edge of his ditches, they are still dearer for his use than tile 
drains, even when he has to pay $10 or $12 per 1,000 for tile. 
The mere cost of excavating and hauling bowlders for drains is 
very large, and after all, their function is unsatisfactory. The 
reason why all these kinds of drains have been stoutly upheld 
by their users is, that any drain, however poor, is far better 
than none ; crops are increased, tillage facilitated, and the 
pleased experimenter, perhaps not willing to look for a better 
method than the one he has employed, thinks there is nothing 
in the world so good. Tile drains, then, we are told, are the 
best. Of the several kinds of tile, the pipe kind is to be pre- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 93 

ferred. No tiles are burned, without warping and shrinking; 
now the ends should be well fitted together, and no kind but 
pipe-tile can be turned over to make good fits, one with an- 
other, and still be right side up. This is the objection to the 
sole-tile, made at Albany and elsewhere, and largely employed. 
They must be set sole down, and if the lot purchased be much 
warped, a straight water-course cannot be insured, and the drain 
is corresiDondiiigly unreliable. The objection to " horseshoe " 
tile is, that in a soft bottom its narrow sides sink so as to render 
the drain sometimes useless; besides which, they, having a 
heavy weight to bear upon an unarched bottom, are liable to 
split lengthwise through the back ; and, further, the stream of 
water spread over a flat surface cannot run so rapidly, and is 
less able to sweep aAvay obstructions, as Avhen the same volume 
is condensed into tubular form, narrowed at the bottom. 
Thinking that water could not get into the close-fitted and 
close-textured tiles, many in Scotland, in former times, put a 
foot or so of small stones over their tile, and soil upon that — a 
foolish and expensive process this, for there is no trouble to 
get water into your insignificant-looking drains — it takes care 
of that itself; the trouble has been to account for its wonder- 
ful inpouring through such small orifices. Parkes, the great 
English drainer, states, after experiments, that only 5J0 of 
the water gets through the pores of the tile ; the balance is 
admitted through the joints. English farmers make their 
ditches a foot wide at top, four inches at the bottom, and with 
an appropriate tool, scoop out a little round trough in which to 
lay their pipes. The soil is then packed upon them, without fur- 
ther trouble or anxiety as to the result. Drains well laid last 
more than fifty years. A half century is the time counted 
upon by the English land drainage companies, at the end of 
which the wliole amount of their loans to the farmer is to be 
paid in. Water enters tile-drains at bottom, not at top ; for 
the same reason that if you pour water into a cask of sand, 
with holes made in the sides at several heights, the lowest hole 



94 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

■will discharge first, and the top one last. The capacity of pipe- 
tile is in proportion to the squares of their diameter : Thus, if 
an inch tile will carry one inch of water, a two-inch will carry 
four inches, a three-inch nine, and so on. Inch tiles, therefore, 
although perhaps large enough to hold all the water that we 
would discharge from our fields, are practically not lai'ge 
enough, for they become filled at say half way down the slope, 
and of course all the ground they pass through after that might 
as well have no tiles beneath it. A two-inch bore is the 
smallest Judge French would recommend for general use, and 
although i^reviously a friend to smaller sizes, I feel convinced 
of the justness of his arguments, and shall hereafter recommend 
and use accordingly. Laterals should be jointed into the 
mains, pointing doxon stremn^ and enter the mains near the 
top ; by this plan a good fall and imimpeded discharge are 
insured. In respect to the minimum of fill consistent with 
good function of tile drains, the lecturer stated that one inch 
fall in each rod of length was ample; thi-ee inches to the 100 
feet was a fair proportion, but then the tiles should be larger ; 
and so on to the end of the calculation. 

Before the morning lecture, a discussion was held at the 
Temple, as usual, in which any jDcrson present was at liberty to 
participate. 

Mr. QuiNCY alluded to the advantages of the soiling system 
— his pet subject — in doing away with interior fences on a farm. 
These, said he, are a great nuisance, besides taking up valuable 
space; they hinder plowing, raking, tedding, and other opera- 
tions of farming by horse-power. Tedding by horse power is 
something new in this country, though practised in England 
extensively. The tedder is a cylinder, revolving on an axle 
supported by two Avheels, like a Delano horse-rake. This 
cylinder revolves with rapidity, and is furnished with teeth, 
which pick up the grass and flirt it olF in a shower behind the 
machine. It will do the Avork of t6n or twelve of those Irish 
gentlemen who pick up and turn over every lick of hay as 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. . 95 

though they were fearful of breaking it. The horse-fork is 
also a labor-saving instrument ; it also avoids the very disa- 
greeable work of unloading hay in a hot day and in a close 
barn. 

But the great advantage of the soiling system is, it saves 
manure. It economizes food, it is true, and keeps cattle in 
better condition, but its chief excellence consists in the amount 
of manure it will make. The solid manure from each animal, 
kept up the year round, will average three and a half cords a 
year ; this, with the liquid manure composted, as it ought to 
be, with muck, will make twenty <•<" ~, of a value equal to 
that usually carted out from a farn barn-yard. Four or 

five hundred cords of muck are annua [y dug out on his farm, 
and left exposed to the weather in winter. This is used, when 
dry, to put behind the cattle in a trench made for the purpose. 
After it is saturated, it is removed to a cellar below, where it 
would be worked over by the pigs were it not too miry for 
them to work in. This makes, in the course of a year, a vast 
pile of manure ; so much, indeed, as to remind one of the 
Augean stables of antiquity, and to seem to require the ser- 
vices of a second Hercules for its removal. The soiling system 
is almost universally adopted in Europe ; it may not be practi- 
cable here, except on a large scale, though almost every farmer 
can use it to help him through the drouths of our summers. 
In case the drouth does not come, his crops, which he has 
planted for soiling, can be cut and made into fodder for 
winter use. The supply of milk, under the soiling system, is 
much more regular, because the cows are regularly fed, regu- 
larly attended, and fed always with the same kind of food. 
For soiling, sow winter rye, to be cut early in the spring, and 
in the spring sow oats or barley every ten days, so as to have 
a regular supply in just the right season, — that is, when the 
plant is in its milk. Indian corn is also a good crop for later 
use. 

Mr. Quincy here spoke of seeding down land to grass. He 



96 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

had found it a good plan to break up a meadow after haying : 
manure well on the turned soil, and sow grass seed only. The 
next season he had cut from two to two and a half tons to the 
acre, where the previous season he had cut ahnost nothing. 

Question — Do you buy any manure ? — No ; but I buy cot- 
ton seed cake to feed my cows. This is, at present prices, the 
most valuable feed to be had, — a ton of it being Avorth, at the 
chemist's estimate, three tons of hay. It is now worth |27 per 
ton in Boston. Linseed cake is also valuable, and English 
farmers wonder how American farmers will let it be exported 
in such vast quantities as it is. 

Judge Frexch asked Mr. Quincy if he fed roots. — No ; 
Linseed cake and hay is the sole food — three pounds of the 
former per day, with cut hay. 

Mr. Bartlett asked what Mr. Quincy's advice would be to 
young farmers here, in regard to going west — alluding to Mr. 
Q.'s travels there. 

Answer — If a young man will be content with the same liv- 
ing here that he will be obliged to put up Avith there, he can 
make money here as well as there. They have no idea of 
what decent living is there. Then, too, there is no society at 
the west — no schools, fit to be called such — no aristocracy. 
There is a perfect equality there ; your Irish gentleman who 
curries your horse feels himself to be your equal, and not un- 
frequently your superior. Civilization is in an embryo state, 
society not yet having advanced to that perfection which Ave 
see at the east. 

Question — IToav does soiling affect breeding ? 

Ansioer — I do not think it prejudical. I am not a stock 
raiser myself, but farm merely for the profit. I buy my coavs 
in Vermont and New Hampshire, though sometimes I I'aise a 
likely heifer calf There are coavs in my stable whose maternal 
ancestors have been there for eight or ten generations past. 

Mr. Tucker asked if ventilation was attended to. — Yes, and 
with great care. 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 97 

Questioii — Is lucerne grown on your farm ? — It is difficult to 
make it yield a good crop, and I don't consider it pi'ofitable. 

Mr. Quincy was here obliged to leave the Convention, and 
tlie subject of root crops was introduced by Judge French, 
and an animated debate held on this topic untU the lecture 
hour arrived. 



THIRTEENTH DAY.— Feb. 15, 1860. 

Prof. Brewer opened' his Tobacco lecture yesterday with a 
rapid sketch of the history of the imperial weed, and referred 
to the pains and penalties which attended its use under succes- 
sive sovereigns. The chemical composition of the plant is very 
remarkable, and worthy of serious study by present and pros- 
pective growers. Nicotine, the deadly j^rinciple to which all 
the ill effects of tobacco are due, is, as every one knows, a 
deadly jDoison. Besides this, the plant contains a number of 
acids, resins, and volatile oils. The strength of tobacco is 
determined by the quantity of nicotine ; the flavor by the oils 
and resins. The ash is of all the most important to the farmer, 
for this is made up from his available plant food — in other 
words, from his farm capital. The oils, resins, and acids come 
from the air, and hence cost us nothing. Take a given quantity 
of 'tobacco and burn it to ashes, and we find that the proportion 
is enormous. The roots give two to fourteen per cent, of ash, 
the stems dried sixteen, and the leaves seventeen to twenty- 
four per cent. As the leaves are the great bulk of the crop, 
the robbery of the soil is correspondingly great. One tliousand 
pounds of tobacco takes an average of two hundred pounds of 
ash ; and two thousand pounds, which may be regarded as a 
large crop, four hundred pounds of ash. Now, a crop of wheat 
of thirty bushels to the acre takes but thirty-six pounds of ash 
5 



98 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

from our farm. In other words, it would require eleven crops 
of wheat to do as much injury as a single crop of tobacco. The 
composition of the ash is variable, in some districts one of the 
leading ingredients being replaced by some other. In an 
average of samples tested by Prof. Brewer, potash salts formed 
a third part of their weight, and seventy-tive to eighty per 
cent, of the soluble portion. Soda exists in but a small quantity. 
Sometimes the potash is replaced by lime. Thus in France, 
along the river Garonne, the tobacco has this peculiarity, and 
is noted for its mildness. In American tobacco, the potash 
salts predominate, and most so in the stronger kinds, which 
grow on new soil. A study of the census will show us, that in 
any tobacco district, tlie production starting at nothing, mounts 
rapidly to a maximum, turns the corner, and never regains its 
higher figures. The reason is, that land can only bear maxi- 
mum crops of tobacco for a short time, and once the decline 
comes on, no power on earth can restore its fruitfulness. By 
high manuring, we can, with other crops, actually improve the 
fertility of our farms, or at any rate, guard against impoverish- 
ment. With tobacco, if we manure highly, we may for a time 
avert the dies irce, so far as bulk of croj? is concerned, but only 
at a sacrifice of quality so great as to destroy our profits. New 
crops have coarse quality of structure, and rankness of flavor; 
while, ^?(?r contra, the tobacco of finer brands is gotten from 
lands long cultivated. A thin leaf, with small pliant veins, is 
most esteemed, and of this character is the tobacco of Holland 
and Connecticut. The season of growth is ordinarily crowded 
into forty days, and the larger portion of tjie soluble salts must 
be at this headlong speed, supplied to the spongioles. The 
crop is so tender, that of all those we cultivate, it is the most 
subject to desti'uction by hail. In Germany there are " Hail 
Insurance" companies on the mutual plan. It is a notorious 
fact that hail-storms extend over very limited areas at a time, 
and hence the farmers of a whole 'country uniting in small 
annual payments toward a mutual fund, it will be seiMi that 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 99 

even the most disastrous hail-ravages could easily be recom- 
pensed, without fear of extinguishing the grand capital. In 
considering the advantages and disadvantages of tobacco- 
culture, Prof. Brewer thus stated the case. The sole advan- 
tage is, that an individual may grow rich from raising it. On 
the other hand, a nation never will ; for the one man's gain is 
obtained at the cost of his son and son's son ; in getting hia 
fortune he has taken from his children the means of future 
gain, like the owner of the goose that laid the golden eggs. 
The crop terribly exhausts the soil ; it is very precarious be- 
cause of weather and insect enemies ; the laborers who culti- 
vate it suffer in health ; and the land, which must always be of 
the best quality, could be employed in raising breadstuffs to 
more general j^rofit. 

Mr. Tucker's third discourse touched more generally upon 
the lessons which Americans may learn from the well-informed 
farmers of Great Britain. 

Although the lectures of the succeeding week were to be devot- 
ed particularly to the subject of domestic animals, one could not 
pretend to speak of "English agriculture" and omit all notice 
of the improvements eifected in English breeding, without 
placing himself in the position of the theatrical company which 
proposed to " play Hamlet," with the part of that distinguished 
character liimself left out. The subject might be viewed in 
two different ways — with the eye of the farmer, or with that 
of the breeder — a distinction of more importance than might 
be at first supposed. 

After a review of the breeds of cattle of Great Britain, it was 
remarked that in speaking of the most meat, in the best shape, 
in the least time, as constituting the highest type of excellence 
for the butcher, it sliould not be forgotten that no one breed 
could be fixed upon as universally su})erior to all others — even 
though there might be a " best breed," and undoubtedly there 
is, Avhere every condition is of the most favorable kind for 



100 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

comparative development. Such conditions, however, are not 
within either the reach, or the inclination of all, and that may, 
therefore, be safely defined as the best breed, either of cattle 
or of any other race of animals, Avhose services or flesh are use- 
ful to us — which attains the greatest excellence compatible 
with the position it is to occupy and the treatment it is to re- 
ceive. Thus, the requirements of East and West, North and 
South may vary widely as to details, while all might precisely 
coincide in the general desire to produce the heaviest fl.esh 
upon each carcase most compactly and quickly. 

The importance of this point becomes apparent when we see 
a farmer induced to try some improved breed, and meeting 
with the failure due to his ill-treatment or simple neglect — a 
failure which he is sure to charge upon the " humbug book- 
farming notions" of the day. There need be no hesitation in 
saying that the most highly improved of foreign breeds are not 
adapted for the use of the majority of our farmers, and that we 
shall naturalize among ourselves breeds that may justly be re- 
garded as " the best," only as we learn to appreciate and treat 
them better. 

The question then arises, What is the true course for our 
farmers to take ? a question which was answered by references 
to the observations made by the speaker abroad, and by a 
quotation from "Morton's Cyclopedia" — the advice derived 
from both being to the end that every farmer should carefully 
select the females from which he is to breed, no matter what 
their mixture of native or foreign blood, and that he should 
never employ a parent of the other sex which did not possess 
well concentrated merits that would be quite certainly impart- 
ed to his progeny. " It is here that pedigree becomes of actual 
money's worth to the farmer." Concentrated qualities in the 
bull are those — whatever the degree in which the particular in- 
dividual possesses them — that are hereditary in the stock from 
which he springs. In selecting a bull by the eye alone, personal 
merits may be chosen, but the character of th6 progeny will 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 101 

very likely revert to the inferioi'iiy of its remoter parentage. 
It need only be suggested, whether the improved bull obtained 
be Devon or Shorthorn, or Hereford or Alderney — that his 
descent be unquestionably pure, and that a line of action once 
marked out be perseveringly followed — a course that could not 
but eifect far greater results in a period comparatively short, 
than those who have not made the experiment will perhaps at 
first be ready to admit. 

" Division of labor" has been strenuously insisted upon by the 
best English stock authorities in the business of raising breed- 
ing stock. Those who have the wealth, the leisure, and the 
taste necessary for this pursuit should be allowed to carry it on, 
while the farmer will find it his best policy to pay a fair price 
for a good article, rather than to run the risks of endeavoring 
to maintain for himself a herd of some pure and distinct breed. 
In the hope of obtaining some trait of superiority he does not 
already possess, the breeder may well pay such prices for an 
animal likely to beget it in his offspring, as it would be the 
merest folly for any farmer to expend for the worst beef that 
was ever contained in one skin. 

The English custom of letting the services of bulls as well as 
rams was then described, and a brief account given of the 
rara-letting last summer of Jonas Webb and Mr. Sanday. 

The estimates of live stock for Great Britain now show that 
she supports for her tohole area the enormous number of one 
sheep to every two acres and a half, and one head of cattle to 
everjr nine acres and a quarter. According to the N. Y. State 
census of 1855, there was then one sheep to every eight eight- 
tenths acres (nearly), and one head of cattle to 13 and a quar- 
ter acres (not quite) ; but the greater weight of the English 
cattle and sheep over ours is probably enough considerably to 
increase the disproportion. It was remarked by Lavergne, and 
cannot fail to have been observed in the examples given of 
English husbandry, that it " is the English farmer's first object 
to keep as many sheep as possible." 



102 YALE AGRICULTDRAL LECTURES. 

Mr. Tucker conceived that the first and most prominent 
lesson we could learn from the farming of Great Britain was 
this, that by the increased growth of meat our first step must 
be taken toward an increased production of grain; or, to quote 
the proverbial English form in which tliis lesson is compressed 
itito four words — " No cattle, no dung ; no dung, no corn," In 
fact, Avhether money is apparently made or lost by feeding in 
England the farmers there appeared to coincide in the opinion 
that without it no money could be made out of anything else. 
A second most important lesson is, the proper and complete 
drainage of the soil, with reference to which an account was 
given of the draining and irrigating operations at Teddesley in 
Staffordshire, the seat of Lord Uatherton. A third lesson for 
lis to learn consists in paying more attention to thorough til- 
lage, including the complete clearness of the soil from weeds; 
and a fourth, the judicious employment under certain circum- 
stances of artificial fertilizers and purchased food — including 
tuider these two heads those crops grown expressly for their 
improving effect npon the land, or for use in feeding animals, 
and thus indirectly in promoting the fertility of the soil. Un- 
der the head of thorough tillage, the implements of Great 
Britain demand our particular notice. Descriptions were given 
of Fowler's and of Smith's systems of steam cultivation, Mr. 
Bright, Lord ILitherton's very intelHgent and successful man- 
ager, was employing the latter, and had said to the speaker, 
that he would not be without it if he were only a tenant farmer 
with 300 acres to cultivate. The prices of these and other 
implements were given, and drills, rollers, and portable engines 
were particulnrly referred to. That island, including England 
and Scotland, had just been compared by Mr. Morton to one 
immense farm, the culture of which was originally entirely 
done by hand ; tillage of the ground, carriage of manures, sow- 
ing the seed, and three-fourths the hbeing of the crops were 
now done by horse-power, threshing of grain ai>d cutting of 
straw by steam, while reaping, also, is now rapidly coming 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 103 

under the domain of the horse and plowing under that of 
steam. 

Upon the subject of manures, Dr. Voelcker was quoted as 
su})porting by science the lesson of practice, tliat " farm-yard 
manure is a perfect and universal manure," and that no one can 
base a system of improved cultivation solely upon the purchase 
of artificials. The tiftli and last lesson of English agriculture 
at present noticed was the importance of more earnest and 
better organized effort in obtaining well-conducted experiments 
in carrying on scientific investigations, and in deciding that 
most difiicult of questions, how and in what the education of 
farmer's sons is to be advantageously modified and advanced. 
Prominent among the agents of progress in English agricul- 
ture had been the Agricultural Societies ; and in referring to 
the show last summer of the Royal Society of England, three 
points were alluded to as particularly striking : 1st, the extraor- 
dinary turn-out of implements, comprising 4,700 entries for 
some 235 exhibitors ; 2d, the imiformity of excellence among 
the animals, as more remarkable than the numbei- that were 
exhibited on the one hand, or any especial instances of wonder- 
ful merit on the other ; and 3d, the character of the attendance, 
the amount paid for admission, and the fact that so large num- 
bers were ready to pay it. The exertions put forth by the dis- 
tinct societies were also noticed, and details given of the differ- 
ent exhibitions held by that of East Lothian in the course of 
the year, including the prizes respectively offered according to 
the season. 

In conclusion, he could only be sensible liow very small the 
beginning Avas that had been made — however long his notes 
might have appeared to his audience — upon the grand stores 
of agricultural information looked up in the practice of English 
fiirmers. He Avas inclined to consider it well worth some self- 
denial to the young American farmer to visit Great Britain be- 
fore " settling down" for life — if his visit could be made in the 
right spirit, and judiciously arranged. In returning, he thought 



104 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

tliat tli(> obscrviiiit Inivellei- could Lut bring hack ,i better 
ai:)l)re('.iation of the advantages possessed in liis own land, and, 
however far beliind our English brethren we must now be 
compelled in due candor to rank ourselves, if we were only 
certain that we were in the right path, perhai)S we might still 
hoi)e to overtake and outstrip them, lie ^vas inclined to be- 
lieve^ — although there might be no statistics in support of such 
a statement — that a thorough English farmer, knowing our 
chmate, and understanding all the circumstances of farming 
liere as well as he does at home, could make agriculture here a 
still more profitabk' pursuit than he made it there, — of course 
supposing that he emph)yed the same capital, and used equal, 
but no greater personal exertions. 

To-day l*rt)f. Bmcwicii lectured on Hops, which he said was 
a crop of growing importance. In 18-10 Ave raised 1,238,000 
pounds; in 1850, 1,197,000. He traced the history of the plant, 
and showed that its general use can be dated only three hun- 
dred years b.ack. Enghmd uses forty million pounds, payuig 
to the government a <luty of over a million dollars. If only 
the hop flowers are taken from the farm, the cro]) is not of so 
exhaustive a nature as tobacco ; but still it is very umch so, 
after all. From a ton of hops we may get ITO })ounds of ash, 
of which potash, lime, and ammonia ibrm pi-incipal ingredients. 
Liberal applications of manure are needed, and they do not 
affect the (piality of the })roduct, as is the case with tobacco. 
Beside farm-yard dung, wool, hair, bones, plaster, lime, and 
ashes, arc all useful fertilizers. In England, the Kent and 
Sussex hop-growers calculate upon spending about fifty dollars 
per acre for special minmres, in addition to what of the ordi- 
nary kind they make on the firm. With such care, they have 
hop plantations tliree hundi-ed years old. The ground must 
be trenched and worked dee-j^ly. About 1,200 hills is the 
proper number per acre, and for each two hundreil hills there 
should be one hill of male plants. It is bcttet^ to plant in tri- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 105 

angular form rather than square. That is to say, the hills of 
adjoining rows should alternate, and not be set opposite each 
other. AVlien picked, the hops should be at once dried, and 
this is better done by passing a current of hot air over them 
than in placing them in a room where they get only the radi- 
ated heat from a stove. Liebig recommends exposing hops to 
the fumes of sulphur, as thus tlie liqndine., or active principle, 
may be preservetl from one season to another. The practice 
is opposed by some, but adopted by many of the best Munich 
brewers. The liop crop varies from year to year to such an 
extent that the price is very fluctuating, and even in a single 
season a month may make a difference of one hundred per 
cent. In conclusion, the lecturer detailed the casualties to 
which the hop is subject, sucli as insects, weather, &c., and gave 
practical directions for its cultivation. 

Judge French gave his third lecture on Draining, taking up 
this time the subjects of the Arrangement and the Cost of 
Drains. He spoke of the necessity of system, and of accurate 
plans. lie described and ilhistrated on the black-board the 
methods of laying out drains with reference to the shape of the 
field, preferring a direction up and down to a direction across, 
or diagonally. He spoke also of the importance of securing 
outlets against frogs and moles by means of gratings, and of 
making the outlets few and permanent. Backwater usually 
does no harm in drains, because it occurs only when the earth, 
as well as the streams, are full, and so there is a strong current 
through the pipes which will prevent any obstruction, as water 
cannot back up into pipes already full. The cost of this in this 
country is twice as great as it should be ; two-inch tiles are 
sold at ten dollars or more a thousand, which is twice the cost 
of bricks. In England tiles cost and are sold at less than the 
price of bricks, and will bo sold at five dollars per thousand 
here as soon as tile-making is understood, and there is a fair 
competition. 
6* 



106 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

The items of the cost of drainage are, 1st. Engineering. 
Employ a competent engineer to get the levels, and locate the 
drains and make a plan, so that the drains may be readily found. 
2d. Excavation, which is less for this than any other drains, 
3d. The cost of tiles and freight. At thirty-three feet apart, 
1,320 pipe will lay an acre, reckoning a foot to each pipe. 
4th. Collars, if used. 5th. Outlets, a small but necessary item. 
6th. Laying the pipes, a small cost, as a man can easily lay one 
hundred and sixty rods in ten hours. 

The total cost of draining four feet deep, with tiles at ten 
dohars per thousand, was estimated at fifty cents a rod. If the 
excavation is but three feet deep, it will reduce the cost to 
thirty-three and a third cents, as it costs twice as much to exca- 
vate a ditch four feet as three feet. 

The comparative cost of stone and tile drains was given; 
the cost of tile drains as above that of stone drains at more 
than twice as much, the excavation being twenty-one inches 
wide, and two loads of stones at twenty -five cents each, making 
the cost of these two items at one dollar a rod. Then add 
twenty-five cents per rod for laying the stones, and we have 
one dollar twenty-five cents per rod for stone drains, against 
fifty cents for tiles. Judge F, concluded with an exhortation 
to farmers to drain with stones if tiles cannot be procured ; but 
not to be satisfied with their operations until they have tried 
tiles at four feet depth. 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 107 

FOURTEENTH DAY.— Feb. 16, 1860. 

Two new lecturers were introduced to us to-day, viz., Mr, 
John SxANTOisr Gould, of Hudson, N. Y., and Mr. Joseph 
Harris, of the Genessee Farmer. Mr. Gould's name was 
made familiar to the farming public at the time when he Avas 
chairman of the famous national reaper ti'ial of the United 
States Agricultural Society. His lecture was not only replete 
with interesting facts and practical suggestions, but adorned 
with those graces of scholarship he knows so well how to 
employ. 

After an allusion to the iBsthetic character of the grasses, 
their economical relations were adverted to. Providence has 
attested their importance by the provision it has made for 
their diffusion and preservation. While other plants, such as 
the fig, orange, and grape, can only be successfully cultivated 
w^ithin narrow belts of latitude, the grasses extend over the 
whole globe. Very curious and various provisions are made 
for the diffusion of the seeds ; many of them are furnished 
with creeping roots. They are not, like other plants, injured 
by the laceration of their herbage. One-sixth of all the plants 
on the globe belong to this family — 230 genera, including 3,000 
species, are already known, and new species are constantly 
presenting themselves. Six-tenths of the cultivated area of 
New York is devoted to the growth of grass, and the annual 
value of the crop is C^60,000,000. In the six New England 
States its annual value is $6,000,000. In the United States, 
$300,000,000. If we succeed in making two blades of grass 
grow where but one grew before, we increase our annual in- 
come $300,000,000. 

It was argued that we might easily double our production 
of grass, if we would set vigorously at work to accomplish it. 
The average production of New York is 96 tons of hay to the 
100 acres ; but the average production of King's county is 
160 tons to the 100 acres. This result is wholly due to the 



108 YALE AfJlUCUI/rUKAl. MOCTURER. 

skill of tlio farinors, as its natural soil is fur below the avcvafro 
of the State in richness. If the same skill were exerted in 
other counties, the same result will follow. Another cause of 
the cliniinution of grass is the })revalenee of weeds ; at present 
nearly oncvthird of the })lants in our meadows are weeds. 

Much ignorance exists among farmers ; very few know the 
names of the grasses growing on their farms, nor can they 
distinguish one from another. They know little or nothing of 
the comparative nutritive values of the different species, nor of 
the soils best adapted to them ; nor of the special purposes to 
which they arc applicable. It was alleged that chemistry 
can never, by itself, furnish a safe and reliable guide to the 
nutritive values of the grasses, because there were frequent 
obstacles to the assimilation by the animal of the nourishment 
contained in the grasses; thus, Phragmites commurds (com- 
mon reed grass) had a coating of silica so thick that it 
woidd cut the stomachs of animals ; other species had sharp 
spines, whi(Oi deterred animals from eating it ; others combined 
miwholesome elements in their nutriment; — hence, whatever 
nourishment might be contained in these was quite useless to 
the ftirmer. 

Much of observation and experiment is necessai-y before we 
pretend to understand the grasses. The making of artificial 
meadows is an art yet in its infancy. We never hear of them 
in England prior to A. D. 1081, nor in this country until about 
A. D. 1720. The attention of observers and experimentalists 
should be directed to the ibllowing points : 

I. The sjx'cial use of each of the .'1,000 species of grass, 

II. The absolute and comparative values of each species 
should be ascertained by chemical analysis and j.ractical tests. 

III. The adaptation of each s{)ecies to different soils, climate, 
and circumstances. 

IV. The period of its growth when it contains the greatest 
amount of those properties on which^ its value chiefly de- 
pends. 



^ YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 109 

V. The kind of culture and the manures best adapted to 
stimulate its growth and to increase its valuable properties. 

VI. The time of flowering of each species, and the time when 
it ripens its seed. 

VII. The species of insects which prey upon it, and the best 
modes of preventing their ravages. 

VIII. The best and most economical means of curing and 
preserving each species of grass. 

To enable tanners to make these observations, they were ad- 
vised to study botany ; — and the remainder of the lecture was 
occupied in describing the parts of the grass Avhich are mainly 
resorted to in order to establish the distinctions of species. 
Some of these descriptions are peculiarly valuable, because not 
given in any work on botany which I can now recall. The 
leaves consist of the following parts: — (a) The /Sheath, which 
represents the petiole or leaf-stalk of other plants; (b) the Zi- 
ffule, or tongue; (c) the Xamina, blade or flat part of the 
leaf, that which in popular language is called the leaf (a) 
The sheath is the foot-stalk of the leaf. The whole length of 
it, which is variable, is folded around the stalk (culm), froni 
which it can be loosened by unwinding, Avithout fracture, — a 
circumstance which serves to distinguish the grasses from the 
sedges, [b) The ligule, or tongue. At the point where the 
sheath ends and the blade begins, occurs a thin and usually 
white semi-transparent membrane, termed the ligule. As the 
botanical works barely describe this, and still perplex us M'ith 
constant allusions to this and other parts of which we have 
about as little knowledge as of the Choctaw alj^habet, it is well 
to remark that this ligule is said to be entire when it has no 
segments; bifid when it is divided at the apex into two parts; 
lacerated vfhQW it appears as if torn on the margin; ciliated 
when the marghi is set with short, pi-qjectiug hairs; truncated 
when the upper part terminates in a transverse line ; acute when 
it lias a short, sharp point ; and accwninated when it has a long, 
projecting point. It has great value in enabling us frequently 



110 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. , 

to distinguish between two grasses otherwise very similar in 
appearance, but of widely diftei'cnt nutritive value. Speaking 
of the area under the grasses in European countries, Mr, Gould 
made a forcible illustration of his subject by coni})aring the ag- 
gregate products in forage and cereal crops in France and 
England. France lias fifty-three per cent, of her (mltlvated 
area under cereals, while England has but twenty-five per cent. 
But, on the other hand, Englnnd j)roduces fiv(^ and one-ninth 
bushels of grain for every individual of her poj)ulation annually, 
while France produces only five and a half bushels. Thus, 
with less than half of the proportionate area under cultivation, 
England produces within seven-eighteenths of a bushel per head 
of what France does. This she accomplishes solely by means 
of tlu^ manure furnished by Jier grass lands. Every acre of 
English grain-land receives the nianure from three acres of 
grass-land, while in France the manure for each acre of grass- 
land is spread over two and a half acres of grain-land ! This 
tells the whole story ; shall we profit by the lesson ? 

Judge Fkencii, of New Hampshire, gave his last lecture on 
drainage this afternoon, much to the regret of the audience, if 
I may judge by the triple rounds of applause by which he was 
honored on taking his leave of us Avith a kindly expression of 
good-Avill. lie commenced b}-^ reading an exti'act from a letter 
of Governor llammoud, of South Carolina, to Levi IJartlett, 
recently received. The testimony of the distinguished Senator 
is so directly in support of thorough drainage that I must give 
it to you. He says : — 

"Of my agricultural affairs, I can only say a few words. 
The last years have been, in my imniodiate neighborhood, 
average crop years, the last more than average. Yet with me, 
owing to my absence, as far as my corn was concerned they 
were not near as productive aslSST. My corn is mainly grown 
on the 1,500 acres of inland sNA'amp I have reclaimed, which 
averaged me, in 18;")7, about fil'ty bi\shels per acre, in 1858, 
about thirty bushels, and in 1859 about twenty. • This looked 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. Ill 

like"exhaustion ; but I know it was not so. I was satisfied, from 
former experience, that in my absence the ditches had not been 
thorouohly cleared and kept clean. Before I left home, in 
December, I had the matter fully tested, and found that ray 
six-feet ditches were three to four feet deep, and all others in 
proportion. Such Avas the carelessness and malfeasance of 
those I left in charge. I inaugurated new officers, and if next 
year is as favorable as the last, will expect to average seventy 
bushels per acre on these lands." 

This very 1,500-aci-e corn-field I went through in 185T, and 
can fully corroborate what the Governor says about his large 
yield, and the depth of his di-ains. In fact, his great outside 
drains looked more like canals than anything else, and were, at 
tlie time of my visit, abundantly filled with water. Two acres, 
if I recollect aright, of tliis corn-field measured ninety-eight 
bushels each, and the plantation crop amounted, in the aggre- 
gate, to about 56,000 bushels. This was raised on a swamp, 
just like many thousand other acres in South Carolina, but 
rendered thus fertile by open ditching. Governor Hammond's 
experience goes to corroborate what yesterday Judge French 
said against open ditches. In one season only, because of neg- 
lect to clean them out, the ditches filled up, so that on the 
1,500 acres the crop was shortened oO,{)()0 bushels, and in one 
year more a further loss of 15,000 bushels was experienced. 
Let things go on at this ratio, and in 1863 Mr. Hammond 
might as well save his seed, for he would get no crop at all. 

Judge French adverted to the fiict that j)lant roots cannot 
descend into soil filled with stagnant water, for it has the same 
deleterious efiect upon them as does holy water upon a cei'tain 
unmentionable gentleman of a sable hue. All plants need 
loosely-packed soil, and some of them a great depth of it. The 
downward travel of roots he proved by the observations of 
Mechi, Cobbett, Downing, and others. Jethro Tull's ancient 
doctrine, that by extreme comminution of the soil we will fur- 
nish abundant food to plants without needing to care much for 



112 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

manures, altliough obsolete for many years, is of late com 
ing into vogue again ; and we certainly cannot work up our 
heavy soils as we sliould, unless we draw off at the bottom the 
excess water, which renders them sticky and tenacious. Evap- 
orating it at the top will certainly not avail, for from a wet 
soil the more we have evaporated, the colder we get it, and 
hence the less fertile ; for plants like warmth and plenty of air, 
as well as moisture. The several advantages which follow 
thorough drainage were severally adduced, and very clearly 
and agreeably explained by the Judge, who has a pleasant con- 
versational way with him that interests one vastly. In Eng- 
land it has been found that draining makes twenty-five per 
cent, difference in the amount of work which animals can per- 
form on a farm in a given time. That is to say, three horses 
will do as much plowing on a drained farm, as can four on one 
undrained, for their strength is correspondingly less taxed. 

The lecture by Mr. Joseph Harris, of the Genessee Farmer^ 
was not only replete with practical hints for tlic cultivation of 
the cereals, but contained, also, a full exposition of the chemi- 
cal laws to which the farmer must pay attention if he would 
secure maximum crops. The original newspaper report of the 
lecture was necessarily very meagre, and I substitute, in its 
place, some extracts taken from the MS. itself, which has been 
kindly placed at my disposal for this purpose by Professor 
Porter. 

The great aim of the wheat-grower in nearly all sections is 
to get wheat early. In western New York, if we could get 
wheat into bloom ten days earlier, we could escape that ter- 
rible insect-pest, the midge. It is this insect, and not, as has 
been often stated, the exhaustion of the soil of phosphates, that 
has caused the deterioration of our wheat product. The injury 
from rust, or mUdew, another great drawback to profitable 
wheat culture, would also be greatly mitigated by earlier 
maturity. Now, there is no one tiling that Avill do so much to 
accomplish this as underdraining. Stagnant water is not only 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 113 

injurious to the growth of wheat, but it renders the soil cold 
and retards the ripening of the grain. It has been found, by 
actual experiment, that a soil which needs draining is from 10" 
to 15" colder than the same soil after it has been underdrained. 
In our late, cold springs tliis would be an immense :ulvantage. 
Havino- the soil underdrained, the next thing is to jjrepare and 
enrich it for the crop. 

The introduction of turnip culture and drill husbandry into 
England banished summer-fallows fi'om all but the heaviest 
clay soils. There was good reason for this : The turnips re- 
quired and received extra cultivation. As soon as the wheat 
crop is harvested, the land is scarified and plowed in the 
autumn, and. two or three times in the spring, and rolled, and 
harrowed, and scarified till it is as free from weeds and as mel- 
low as an ash-heai? ; then the turnips are sown in drills from 
2 feet to 2^ feet apart. The plants are singled out by hand- 
hoes in the rows, from 12 to 15 inches apart, and the horse- 
hoe is kept constantly going between the rows, and the hand- 
hoe whenever necessary. In this way the land is as effectually 
cleared and mellowed as if it had been summer-fallowed. 
Hence turnips have been appropriately tei-med a " fallow crop." 
But we have as yet no such fiillow crop in America. I am 
aware that Indian corn is sometimes called a " fallow crop," 
because, like turnips, it admits the use of the horse-hoe ; but it 
is not, strictly speaking, a fallow or renovating crop, because 
it impoverishes the soil of the same plant food as the wheat 
crop requires. So much has been said in England against sum- 
mer-fallows, and these opinions have been reiterated so often 
by the agricultural press of this country, for the last 30 years, 
that there is a very general opinion that summer-fallows is un- 
necessary. This impression, while it may have done some 
good, has also done considerable harm. Farmers have neg- 
lected their summer fallows. In Western New York it has 
not been uncommon for some years to prejiare land for wheat 
by simply turning under a crop of clover when in bloom, say 



114: YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

in June, and then keejDing the surface of the land clean by the 
use of the cultivator and harrow till the seed is soAvn, without 
any more plownng in the fall. On Ii2:ht soils this tnay be a good 
pi'acticc, but on heavy soils I think a real old-f ishioned summer- 
fallow would be better ; thougli I have seen excellent crops 
produced on heavy land by plowing in a crop of clover — the 
clover, besides enriching the soil, serving also to render it 
light. Still, I do not like the practice of plowing in clover for 
wheat. I believe in many cases a good summer-fallow would 
be much better. 

Passing food through the body of an animal does not in- 
crease its ultimate fertilizing power ; it adds nothing to it, but 
the droppings of animals area more appropriate food for plants 
— at least for wheat — than the food which the animals con- 
sumed. It is contrary to the economy of nature to use plants 
which are capable of sustaining animal life for the purpose 
merely of fui'nishing food for other plants. For this reason, 
Avhile I would earnestly recommend the extensive cultivation 
of clover on all wheat soils — while I would say to every farmer, 
" Raise your own clover seed, and sow it with an unsparing 
hand " — while I believe there is no crop which furnishes so much 
ammonia at so cheap a rate — no crop so well adapted to our cli- 
mate and circumstances — no crop which has done and is now 
doing so much to increase the fertility of our farms, still I 
think it is contrary to sound theory and good practice to plow 
under such a large amount of matter capable of sustaining 
animal life, for the simple purpose of furnishing food for the fol- 
lowing wheat crop. Fertilizing matter furnished by decayed 
clover is not as appropriate food for wheat as the droppings of 
animals living on clover. It contains too much caibonaceous 
matter — the very matter which animals need to keep up the 
heat of their bodies, and to form fat ; and which, when the 
clover is fed to animals, is bufiQt._ont while the nitrogen re- 
mains in the form of ammonia — or in c'ompounds which readily 
decompose and form ammonia. This ammonia • is what we 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 115 

most need. It not only increases the crop, but ttp to a certain 
point, accelerates early maturity. (If we get too much am- 
monia and a moist, cloudy summer, it has an opposite effect- 
but there is not much danger of our getting too much am- 
monia.) On the other hand, the carbonaceous matter, forming 
four-fifths of the clover, is of little fertilizing value, and, cer- 
tainly, on the majority of soils, is not needed by the wheat 
crop, while it has a tendency to produce too much straw, and 
to retard the ripening processes. 

These remarks will apply, also, in some degree, to poor, 
strawy, leached, weathered manure. There is not enough 
ammonia in a ton of such stuff as many farmers call manure 
to niaJce hartshor?i- enough for a lachfs snielling-hottle ! ! ! 
Instead of plowing in so much clover for wheat, then, let us 
convert it hito wool and mutton, and if we can give our sheep 
peas, or beans, or oilcake in addition, it will tell wonderfully on 
the numure, and on the crops to which it is applied. 

In preparing heavy land for wheat, it is still necessary, in 
many cases, to resort to summer-fallows. On the light soils 
we might take a crop of beans, planted in rows and thoroughly 
horse-hoed, and sow wheat afterwards. On heavier soils I 
have seen an excellent crop of wheat follow a crop of peas, 
which had been sown instead of fallowing. The great draw- 
back to the peas is, that they are affected by the bug. But if 
fed out early to hogs, the bugs do not injure them materially, 
Avhile they are very fattenhig and make rich manure. You 
can commence feeding them to hogs on the land, while the peas 
are still green. In England wheat is genei'ally sown on a one 
or two-year old clover sod, the land being ])lo\ved immediately 
before sowing. As a general rule, tliis practice does not suc- 
ceed here, because, for one reason, we sow a month eai-lier than 
they do in England, and a clover field plowed here the last of 
August is generally so diy that the seed wheat does not ger- 
minate evenly ; and it is found, too, that the wheat is overrun 
with weeds and grass the next seasor.. I think, however, if 



116 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

our land were cleared the way it should be before it is seeded 
to clover, and eaten down by sheep during the sunniier, 
wheat might be raised here with one plowing, as in England, 
especially if we used a little Peruvian guano at the time of 
sowing. In western New York manure is seldom applied 
directly to wheat ; some say it is injurious. But I apprehend 
that, on most farms, the wlieat would be veiy grateful for a 
little good, well-rotted manure, either plowed in or spread on 
the surface just before sowing. Wheat needs something to 
give it a good start in the fall, and a little Avell-rotted manure, 
not plowed in deep, would be very acceptable. A dressing of 
Peruvian guano, say 150 lbs. to 300 lbs. to the acre, would 
perhaps be better still. It will pay if we get |1 50 per bushel 
for wheat. At |1 per bushel the profits from the use of guano 
will be very slight, and may be on the wrong side of the 
ledger. 

Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, seldom does any good on 
wheat in western New York, although it lias a very good effect 
on clover, and sometimes on peas. Some good farmers sow a 
bushel of plaster (gypsum) on the wheat in the spring, but it 
is done, not to benefit the wheat, but for its efiect on the clover 
sown with the wheat. 

In regard to the time of sowing wheat, we have to steer 
between the Hessian fly and the midge — the Scylla and 
Gharyhdls of the wheat-grower. If we sow too early, there is 
increased danger from the Hessian fly, which deposits its eggs 
in the young plants in the fall ; and if we sow late, the proba- 
bility is that the midge, which deposits its eggs in the grain 
when in bloom, will destroy it. In western New York, from 
1st to the 10th of September is now considered the safest 
time. As we go south, the wheat is sown later, but ripens 
earlier, and I believe we should find it to our advantage to get 
seed wheat from a southern rather than a northern latitude; 
but there is some difierence of opinion on this point. It seems 
probable, to say the least, that the wheat would, ,for a year or 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 117 

two, retain a tendency to ripen at the same time it did at the 
south. The importance of this qnestion will be seen when it 
is uuderstooil that if we coidd ,<>-et wlieat in bloom 10 days 
eailier it would receive little injury from the midj^o, and if it 
could bo sown later, as at the south, the ITessian iiy could do 
it no liarm. 

We have an early wlieat — the Mediterranean— which gener- 
ally escapes the midge, but it is of comparatively poor quality, 
though it improves much in this respect by cultivation. In 
regard to the quantity of seed per acre, I am in favor of rather 
thick sowing, say two bushels and a peck per acre if sown 
broadcast, or two bushels if sown with the drill. If the land 
is in fine tilth and high condition, less seed will be required. I 
know the quantity I have i-ecommended is unusually large for 
this country ; I know that a much less quantity is am])ly suffi- 
cient to seed an acire if the seed all germinates aiul the plants 
are not winter-killed ; but we must sow enough to guard 
against these and other (casualties, and I think I am warranted 
in saying, that thick seeding has a tendency to produce early 
wheat. This at least is certain : where wheat is thin from hav- 
ing been partially killed by snow-drifts or by Avhat is known 
as " winter kill," the crop is always late, and generally suffers 
from midge and mildew. It is true that this late ripening may 
be owing to the same causes which produced the destruction 
of the plants. I know of no decisive experiment bearing on 
the point, but it is the opinion of several intelligent wheat- 
growers in western Now York that thin seeding gives late 
crops. An experienced English writer contends that there is 
no advantage in drilling wheat unless it is hoed afterwards in 
the spring. This may be true of England, where the soil at 
the time of seeding is always moist enough to insure germi- 
nation, but in this country, where we sow (earlier and the soil 
is dry, there is this advantage in drilling: the se(!d can be 
deposited eveidy, and at sufficient dej)th to insure germination. 
For this idea I am indebted to John Johnston ; it cost me 



118 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

nothing, and I give it freely ; but I believe he obtained it at a 
cost of live or six hundred bushels of wheat in one year. 

On the cultivation of Indian corn my remarks shall be very 
brief Corn will grow on all soils, from the lightest sand to 
the heaviest clay, among granite rocks and on the richest 
bottoms. It does not need so compact and calcareous a soil 
as wheat. It delights in a loose, friable, warm, porous, deep 
soil, abounding in organic matter. It does well on all good 
wheat soils, yet it often does better on soils too light and 
mucky for wheat. It is a gross feeder. We can easily make 
land too rich for wheat, but I have never yet seen any too 
rich for the production of Indian corn. Like all spring crops, 
corn requires an active soil. Its growth is very rapid. The 
atmosphere should have free access; fine tilth is essential ; the 
soil should be made as fine as possible before planting, and 
after the plants are up the hoe and cultivator cannot be used 
too much during the first month. Throughout the vast corn- 
growing region of the west, if we can remove stagnant Avater, 
prepare the land properly, plant in good season, and use the 
horse-hoe freely, the soil is, in the majority of cases, rich enough 
to produce fair and remunerative crops. I liave been in a tAvo 
hundred acre field in Ohio, that has produced annually a good 
crop of corn for over fifty years without manure ; but it was 
thoi'oughly cultivated. Not a weed or blade of grass M-as to 
be seen. In passing over the magnificent prairies in Illinois, 
I was much struck by the decided difierencc of the corn crops. 
Wherever the soil was diy, and proper care had been exercised 
in preparing the land, and keeping it well cultivated, the crops 
presented a most luxuriant appearance ; but where careless 
preparation, and negligent, slovenly culture were rendered 
visible to the observant eye by the growth of weeds, the crop 
was as yellow and sickly :j(S though it had got the ague. It. 
was literally starved in the midst of plenty. Whether grown at 
the east or the west, on rich land or poor land, corn must have 
good culture, and I would h(;re say that taking everything into 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 119 

consideration, as much energy and skill are necessary to pro- 
duce profitable crops of corn at the west, as at the east. At 
all events, the difference is not as great as is generally suppos- 
ed. Levi Bartlett states, that of thirty-five crops of Indian 
corn offered for premiums in Massachusetts, the average profit 
over all expense exceeded $51 per acre. 

Corn will succeed on land that is too low and mucky for wheat, 
but though this is true, it is vain to hope for good crops if the 
land is surcharged with stagnant water. All the sunshine of our 
hottest summers cannot make such land warm. The heat is 
expended in evaporating the water instead of warming the 
soil. In passing along the various railroads of the country, I 
have been often saddened at the sight of thousands and tens 
of thousands of acres planted to corn, which by a little under- 
draining would have produced magnificent crops of this king 
of cereals, but which presented a miserable spectacle of yellow, 
sickly, stunted, half-starved j^lants, struggling for very life. 
Until the land is freed from stagnant water, all our efforts to 
produce good crops of corn will prove ineffectual. When this 
is. accomplished, good cultivation will be most abundantly re- 
warded. 

I have made some experiments with manures for Indian corn, 
on a field which had been under a scourging system of cropping 
with the cereals, and had never been manured for twenty 
years. 

XJnleached Avood ashes had no effect on the corn, in this 
field ; and 300 pounds of super-phosphate of lime per acre, 
though it gave the plants an early start, produced at harvest 
no larger a crop than 100 pounds of gypsum. But whenever 
ammonia was used, the crop was materially increased — more 
than doubled in one instance. The 'only deduction I M'ould 
draw from this is, that the majority of our soils, relatively to 
ammonia, are not deficient in potash, soda, and phosphoric acid, 
so far as the growth of corn is concerned. 

It is quite probable that there are soils where ashes and 



120 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

phosphates may be needed for corn ; but where such is the case, 
it is certain that they are mucli more needed for the growth of 
clover and other leguminous crops, and turnips, and that we 
cannot obtain from natural sources sufficient ammonia for the 
corn without growing these crops, or others which, Uke them, 
by their growth and consumption on the farm, furnish an in- 
creased quantity of ammonia for the use of the cereals. 



FIFTEENTH DAY.— Feb. 17, 1860. 

Mr. John Stanton Gould's lecture to-day Avas devoted to a 
classification and description of the grasses, with practical hints 
at the best varieties for farm use. After making some state- 
ments respecting the classification of the grasses, Mr, Gould 
proceeded to speak of the several species, describing their bo- 
tanical and chemical characters, and the soils and localities to 
which they were severally adapted. With the grasses before 
him, he pointed out the marks by which timothy was identified 
and distinguished from others which resembled it. The largest 
stalk that he had ever seen was six feet six inches long, with a 
spike measuring eleven inches. The heaviest crop that he had 
ever heard of was on the farm of John Fisher, Carroll county, 
Md., who cut from an acre five tons, 1,622 j^ounds of dry hay. 
The heaviest crop of i^ure timothy that he had himself seen was 
on the farm of the Hon. Geo. Geddes, of Syracuse, whicli gave 
three tons to the acre. According to the analysis of Mr. Way, 
timothy yields more dry hay from a given amount of grass, and 
more of albuminous, fatty, and calorifacient matters from a 
given amount of dry hay, than any of the grasses upon which 
he experimented. But it must be remembered, that Mr. Way 
did not analyze either Poa c^omprcssa or Poa serotinu. 

The great drawbacks to its utiUty as a permanent meadow- 
grass are, — the very little after-math it produces ; its liability 
to run out after two or three years; and the injury it receives 



YALE AGRICULTCTRAL LECTURES. 121 

from insect!?, with which it is infected, and which seem to be 
on the increase. The proper time for mowing timothy is just 
when the first dry spot appears above the first joint. If mowed 
before, the plant is injured. If left to a later period, the starch 
and sugar are converted into indigestible woody fibre, and the 
nitrogenous compounds, on which its value chiefly depends, are 
transferred from the leaves and culms to the seed, which mostly 
drop out before they reach the margin, Timothy is not well 
adapted to hot sands, gravels, and chalks, nor for hard, sterile 
clays ; but thrives on peaty, damp soils, and especially on most 
calcareous loams, where it exhibits its fullest perfection. 

Meadow Foxtails. — There are five varieties of the genus 
(Alopecurus), viz. : A. pratensis, A. agrostis, A. geniculatus, and 
A. aristulatus. The A. pratensis may be distinguished from its 
allied species by the equality of length in the glumes and palese, 
and by a twisted awn twice the length of the blossom. It rarely 
exceeds three feet in length, and does not usually yield over 
one ton to the acre. It is very watery in its composition ; — 100 
pounds of the green grass gives only 19f pounds of dry hay, 
while an equal quantity of timothy gives 42f pounds. If one 
ton of green timothy be worth $5, the foxtail Avill be worth 
$2 07, if Mr. Way's analysis can be relied on. It is found 
abundantly in some of our best pasture ; is one of the earliest 
to start in the spring, and the first to mature its seeds ; its after- 
math is exceedingly abundant, starting up immediately after 
mowing, and if the M'eather be showery will, in a week or ten 
days, give a fxir bite to the cattle. It is not well adapted to 
alternate husbandry as it requires three or four years to bring a 
meadow to full perfection. It is very diflScult to procure good 
seeds, as many heads are entirely destroyed by the insects. It 
is better adapted to pasture than to meadow, flourishes most 
luxuriantly on rich, moist, strong soil, the production from a 
clayey loam being three-fourths greater than from silicious soil. 

Setaria glaiica—ls, good for nothing in meadows and pas- 
tures ; it should be exterminated as soon as possible, which 
6 



122 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

rany he done by a thin coat of horse-mannre apphed in the 
lall. 

Dactylis glomernta^ or orchard-grass, sometimes grows five 
feet high, and has produced five tons, 1,859 lbs., an acre. One 
hundred pounds of it produces thirty pounds of dry hay ; it 
contains nearly as ranch of fat and flesh-forming matters as 
timothy, but contains much less of heat-forming matters. If 
the latter is worth |5 a ton, orchard-grass will be worth |3 59. 
It flourishes well in shady places, and receives its trivial name 
from its adaptation to orchards. It affords a very large amount 
of after-math, — starts very early in the spring, and continues to 
send out leaves until late in the autumn. It shoots up very 
rapidly after mowing. Its disposition to grow in tussocks may 
be prevented by harrowing and rolling in the spring. It flour- 
ishes well on almost all soils and climates, but a sandy loam 
seems best adapted to bring out all its good qualities. On 
whatever soil it may be grown, the cattle will eat it in prefer- 
ence to any other, and will adhere to it as long as any of it is 
left. 

Poa pratensis^ a Kentucky blue-grass, in this section does 
not grow higher than 2^ feet, and cannot be relied upon to 
yield more than a ton and a hall' to the acre. One hundred 
pounds of the grass yields thirty-two pounds of dry hay to the 
acre, and is worth $3 20 per ton when timothy is worth $5. 
Butter made from this grass will keep sweet longer than that 
made from any other species. Its after-math is very luxuriant, 
and it stands the cold better than any other, but is liable to 
burn up in hot, dry weather. Its fiivorite locality is a lime- 
stone soil. 

Poa comjt)ressa,^Wire, or blue-grass, has nev(!r been ana- 
lyzed, but is believed to be the most nutritive of our grasses ; 
it is certainly the heaviest, and grows about twenty inches high, 
standing thijily on the ground. Jt causes an abundant flow of 
very rich milk, and horses fed upon it alone Avill do as much 
Avork and keep in as good order as when fed upon tiniothy and 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 123 

oats combined. Sheep fatten astonishingly upon it, and all 
grazing animals eat it with avidity. 

Agrestis vulgaris — Red-top, grows about 'i^ feet long, and 
yields about 1^ tons to the acre. It is not a first-rate grass, 
but seems to be better relished by Avorking oxen than by any 
other stock. It grows in very moist land. 

Agrestes alha, or white-top, seems better adapted to sandy 
soils than the preceding, but resembles it very nearly in its 
botanical character. 

Mr. Gould described many other varieties with much minute- 
ness, illustrating their peculiarities from specimens in his hands. 

The morning lecture by Mr. Theodore S. Gold of this State 
was on Root Crops — the field turnip, ruta-baga, beet, carrot, 
and parsnip — the soil they severally required, their culture, 
composition, and uses. 

Root culture, says Mr. Gold, is the basis of successful Eng- 
lish farming. As a means of supporting an increased stock, of 
supplying an abundance of enriching manure, and in thorough 
culture thus jjreparing for other crops, its value there proves 
inestimable ; and there is no doubt that its more extended in- 
troduction here must be one of the means of securing that high 
degree of productiveness which constitutes the most successful 
agriculture. The estimated value of the root crop of Britain 
amounts to £20,000,000, or upward of $100,000,000, while its 
subsequent advantages, as preparatory for other crops, vastly 
exceed this sum. It was a remark of Daniel Webster that, 
"Take away turnip culture, and England would become bank- 
rupt." 

The turnip belongs to the same botanical genus as the cab- 
bage, which also embraces in its varieties the caulifloAver and 
broccoli. Two or three species are made by some botanists 
of the turnips, which exhibit such great variations in form 
and color, while others embrace them all in one. No class of 
plants exhibit greater adaptation to the various conditions to 



124 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

which it is subjected by culture, and though they have been 
long known, it is but recently that they have acquired any 
importance as farm crops. Hence we may anticipate a high 
degree of improvement in the future. While the average of 
the turnip crop of the State of New York is shown by Mr. 
Randall to be only 88 bushels per acre, this is far below the 
capacity of the soil as is proved by the reported premium crops, 
reaching, in one instance, as high as 2,102 bushels j^er acre. 
The details of management in the case of this crop were given, 
in the language of the cultivator, J. T. Andrew, of West 
Cornwall, Conn., to show what results may be attained by 
skilful culture. New land produces the best turnips for all 
purposes, especially for table use. Sow white tm*nips in drills, 
or broadcast, the latter part of July ; ruta-bagas the last of 
June, in drills, twenty-five to thirty inches apart. Quantity of 
seed, one pound per acre. The most thorough preparation of 
the soil by deep and careful plowing, and early and repeated 
tillage by the horse- and hand-hoes, are necessary in the highest 
degree in this and all the other root-crops. The ruta-baga is a 
gross feeder, and requires an abundance of manure either in a 
raw state or fermented. This may be applied broadcast, or 
nnder the drills. Bones and super-phosphates are considered 
essentials to turnip culture in England. My experiments with 
them have proved quite undecisive as to their value here. 
Early thinning to a distance of twelve inches in the row is re- 
quired for the largest produce. If soAvn late, for table use, 
they may stand much closer. 

The beet in the form of the sugar beet in France and Ger- 
many, and the mangold wurtzel in Great Britain, is taking a 
position of more importance than even the turnip. It requires 
much the same culture as the ruta-baga, while the greater 
yield of the mangold, its freedom from disease and the attacks 
of insects, and its superior keeping qualities, render it a gen- 
eral favorite, while its fitness for enduring heat and drouth 
especially adapt it to our wants. The quantity of seed varies 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 125 

from two to four pounds, according to the manner of sowing. 
The drill sows it very unequally, from the rough surface and 
varying size of the seed capsules. It is better sown by dib- 
bling with some instrument, at regular distances of twelve 
inches in the drill. Sow in May or June, about the time of 
planting corn, and harvest before severe frost. It keeps admi- 
rably, even till the new crop grows again. It is not considered 
fit for use in England till after Christmas. It is excellent for 
sneep, cattle, and swine. The latter prefer it to potatoes or 
carrots. Twenty pounds is not a very large size for this root. 
The lecturer here exhibited one of his own raising, Aveighing 
20 lbs. The amount per acre of 1,200 or 1,500 bushels is here 
considered a very good crop, while in Fi-ance and Germany 
reports are given of crops almost exceeding belief. Mons. 
Auguste de Gasparin, in the Journal d' Agriculture Pratique, 
reports having raised on one-fourth of an acre 127 tons of 
2,000 pounds each, or 5,080 Tjushels of beets, at 50 pounds per 
bushel. He also states that Mons. Koechlin, in Alsatia, raised 
at the rate of 15G tons per acre, or G,240 bushels. The roots 
averaged 374- lbs. each, and as this allows five square feet for 
each plant, it is quite within the limits of possibility. 

The carrot is the most esteemed of all the roots for its feed- 
ing qualities. When analyzed it gives but little more solid 
matter than the other roots, 85 per cent, being water ; but its 
influence in the stomach upon the other articles of food is most 
favorable, conducing to their most perfect digestion and assim- 
ilation. This result, long known to practical men, is explained 
by chemists as resulting from the presence of a substance 
called pectine, which operates to coagulate or gelatinize vege- 
table solutions, and favors this digestion. Horses are especially 
benefited by the use of carrots. In that true " high farming" 
which is most eminently profitable, tlie culture of roots holds 
an important place. It requires labor and requires capital ; 
"but thG foolish system of lahor-saving, by abstaining from its 
use, lies at the foundation of very much of the wretched farm- 



126 YALE AGEICULTUKAL LECTURES. 

ing with which we are so justly charged. In that happy con- 
dition of Connecticut agriculture in which every acre in this 
State shall either support its cow or produce its equivalent in 
value for animal or human food, successful root culture must 
exercise an important part. 



SIXTEENTH DAY.— Feb. 18, 1860. 

Hear what old Mr. Levi Baktlett, of jSTew Hampshire, said 
yesterday in opening his farmer-like lecture on the cultivation 
of winter wheat in New England : "It may be asked why one 
so conscious of oratorical defects, should attempt speaking at 
all, especially in such a convocation as this. I can only answer 
in the words of the wily old Roman, that I am a plain, blunt 
man, who loves the cause ; and therefore am I come to speak, 
but most of all to hear, in this assembly. And if forty years 
of study of the principles of agriculture, and full twenty devoted 
to practice, with an enthusiasm which time has not abated, 
give me any claim on your attention, then I trust to your gen- 
erosity to excuse the manner for the sake of the matter." Con- 
sidering that the matter was of an eminently practical charac- 
ter, and that friend Bartlett's quaint jokes kept the convention 
in a roar, his apology was scarcely needed. 

Mr. Bartlett said that from his earliest recollection down to 
1852, spring wheat was the only kind raised in New Hamp- 
shire. In fact, he never saw a field of winter wheat until he 
was fifty years of age. Spring wheat had, in general, been 
jaretty successfully grown on all land that would produce corn, 
until the appearance of the midge, some quarter of a century 
ago. The ravages of this pernicious insect were so great, es- 
pecially on valley farms, that the culture of wheat was in great 
part abandoned, so that a large part of our farmers, as well as 
those of all other professions, depended upon Western and 
Southern flour for their wheaten bread ; and, as there v,',;s 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 127 

but little else eaten, it lias been a mystery among oux- most 
acute financiers liow the peoj^le paid for all this " boughteu 
flour.'' But within the past six or eight years, matters m 
this respect have greatly mended, in consequence of many of 
our New Hampshire farmers having turned their attention to 
the culture of winter wheat, in which most of them have been 
very successful. 

In the summer of 1852, the son of his (Mr. Bartlett's) neigh- 
bor was in western New York, and was so pleased with the 
fields of winter wheat, that he took home with him four- 
teen quarts of the "bald " variety of white wheat grown there. 
This Avas sown on about one-third of an acre of dry, loamy 
land. From a combination of favorable circumstances, it yield- 
ed sixteen bushels of prime wheat, at the rate of forty-eight 
bushels i^er acre. Nearly all of the sixteen bushels was readi- 
ly sold for seed at $o per bushel, and as was to be expected, 
under the excitement and the entire ignorance of its proper 
culture by the farmers, some succeeded well, while others 
made a partial or total failure. In 1853, he sowed one bushel 
on light, pine land, from which a crop of beans had been re- 
moved at the thne of sowing the wheat, he applying to the land 
one hundred and fifty pounds of Peruvian guano. The wheat 
was sown 20th of September, at least twenty-five days too late. 
The yield was about nine bushels. For the five past years, he 
has been experimenting with winter wheat on a variety of 
soils, and with difl'erent manures. He has grown it on inter- 
vale lands, on hills, on light, dry soils, and stiff, heavy ones. 
These last, however, have always been ridged up, turnpike 
like, and the dead-furrows well cleaned out to drain off the 
water. Sometimes the wheat has been sown on a newly in- 
verted timothy sod ; at other times on a clover ley, and upon 
wheat and oat stubble. In every instance the land has been 
pretty liberally manured with farmyard manure, or guano. 
During the six or seven years he has grown it, it has suffered 
but very little from winter-kilhng, nor has it been injured to 



128 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

any great amount by the midge, although his own spring 
wheat, and that of his neighbors, has been nearly ruined by that 
insect. As an illustration of this, he stated that, in 1857 he 
harvested twenty-eight bushels of prime winter wheat from 
seven pecks sowing of the previous autumn. From a bushel 
of spring wheat, sown in May, 1857, he harvested but seven 
pecks, and of a very poor quality at that. His crops have 
averaged about fifteen bushels to the bushel of seed sown; 
many of the farmers in his vicinity have raised twenty bushels, 
and over, from the bushel of seed sown ; and one farmer raised 
on "hill-land" last season, twenty-two bushels from a bushel of 
seed, while another, on a low-lying farm, grew ninety-one bushels 
from four and a half bushels of seed. These "out west " might 
not be considered very great crops, but they are more than 
twice as large as those of spring wheat, in his section of Kew 
Hampshire, have averaged of late years. 

He has been experimenting for several years with a great 
variety of Patent Office wheats. Out of the number only four 
varieties have been found adapted to his j^lace. Of these the 
" early Japan," the original of which w^as brought from Japan 
by the late Commodore Perry, is a red wheat, some ten 
days earlier than any other variety he has grown, its earliness 
putting it beyond injury from the midge. The "Tuscan wheat," 
from Michigan, which was distributed by the Patent Office, 
was accompanied by a certificate from several Michigan farmers, 
which showed that it had been grown there for seven years, 
and had never been known to rust. It is a large-grained, 
flinty variety, yielding fifty pounds A No. 1 flour to the bushel. 
The " Early Noe," the original seed of which was procured 
from France, has the merit of early maturity, as it was said to 
be ten days earlier than any other grown in the dominions of 
Napoleon. With Mr, B. it has- not proved earlier than his 
other varieties. It has a good-sized kernel, and very stiff, 
white straw, and promises to be a variety worthy of general 
cultivation. General Harmon's " ini})ioved white flint," from 



YALE AGRICULTUEAL LECTURES. 129 

the Patent Office, is a most beautiful wheat ; hardy, produc- 
tive, aud making the finest quality of flour and bread. Also, 
another variety of white wheat, yielding fifty-seven pounds of 
fine flour to the bushel. 

Samples of all the above varieties, both in the straw, and the 
grain in bottles, were exhibited during his lecture, Avhich fully 
sustained his positions in regard to the adaptation of our New 
England soil and climate to the profitable production of winter 
wheat. He usually carries four bushels of his wheat to mill, 
to make a barrel of flour, and pays for the grinding some thirty 
cents; and he finds a material diflerence between this, and 
handing over a ten dollar bill, or giving his note for that amount 
for a barrel of Milwaukie or Chicago floiir. 

To insure success in raising winter wheat in New Hamj:)- 
shire, the land must be dry, in good heart, and well-worked. 
The seed should be sown from the 20th of August to the 5th 
of September. It should be thus early sown to have it get 
. well-rooted before winter, and to hasten its maturity, so as to 
escape the midge. A diflerence of five or ten days in the 
blossoming of a field of wheat frequently makes the difi'erence 
between a very good, and a very poor crop. This is owing to 
the midge. He has, by sowing early, escai^ed loss from the 
midge and rust, while some of his neighbors, who have delayed 
sowing till after their corn Avas harvested, have sufiered by 
winter-kill, midge, and rust. 

Learning that Col. Cate, of Northfield, N. H., had been very 
successful in growing winter wheat for a number of years, 
Mr. B. wrote to him upon the subject in December last. He 
read an extract from the Col.'s letter, which is as follows : 

"I commenced the cultivation of winter wheat in the year 
1850, and have continued it without interruption up to the 
present time. The first year I sowed one bushel of the 'white- 
bald winter wheat,' on the 6th day of September of that yeai-, 
on land which had grown a crop of corn the same season. The 
land had been tolerably well manured in the spring ; but 



130 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

from some cause, I hardly know what, did not produce a large 
crop of corn. The wheat came up well, and tillered finely 
during the autumn following. When winter set in, it stood 
all over the i^iece ankle-deep, and quite thick. In the spring 
following, and before the warm weather set in, it seemed to 
retain all its freshness of color and vitality. It did not suffer 
in the least from the winter cold, nor the spring frosts. It 
was harvested in July, and by my record of crops I find it was 
threshed August 7, 1851. It measured up, of clean wheat, 
twenty-four bushels, and weighed sixty-five and a half pounds 
per hushel. As already said, I have continued to raise winter 
wheat ever since, and am perfectly satisfied that it is safer, by 
far, and surer than summer wheat, for most soils in our State. 

" My method of culture has been briefly as follows : In the 
first place, I have cultivated on ground which liad been hoed, 
and on the inverted sod, breaking at or about the time of sow- 
ing. Out of the time I tliink I have sowed four years on the 
recently broken up land, and I do not see but that I have suc- 
ceeded in one case as well as in the other. I hardly need say 
that the land in either case should be thoroughly plowed and 
harrowed. I have invariably soaked my seed in a strong solu- 
tion of salt and Avater, and most of tlie time have used ' Glau- 
ber's salts' with the common coarse salt — not, however, soak- 
ing the seed more than two hours. After draining it, I have 
generally rolled it in ashes, and then sowed immediately. If 
my land has been cultivated and manured the spring before, I 
use no other manure or stimulant at the time of sowing. If 
not, as in the case of newly broken up land, I have used, and 
am so well satisfied with the results that I shall conthiue to use, 
from ten to fifteen bushels of ashes, with fi-om one to two bush- 
els of salt, per acre, sown broadcast over the field at the time 
of sowing the seed. The result has always been a larger crop 
than under the most favorable seasons I could get from spring 
wheat sown on the same kind of soil, and side by side." 

Col. Gate, as well as Mr. B., thinks that winter wheat can be 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 131 

grown with as much certainty in New England, as it is by 
western farmers, but, not as cheaply — for here we must use 
manure to obtain good crojjs. 

Mr. Gould's third lecture, to-day, was devoted to a descrip- 
tion of the grasses and clovers, in continuation of his lecture 
yesterday. He denied the distinctions of the genus Festuca, as 
laid down in botanical works, asserting that F. ovina and F. ru- 
bra were merely variations of F. duriuscula, and that F. loliacea 
and F. pratense were varieties of F. elatior. It is sufficient for all 
the purposes of the farmer to divide the genus into two classes : 

1. Those having more or less hairs on the leaves; and 

2. Those having smooth leaves. 

This genus affords us some species that are of great value in 
an agricultural point of view, each of which, under certain 
circumstances, is of great value, and very permanent in its 
forms and qualities. Thus: F. ovina is essentially a grass of 
the thin soils resting upon rocky uplands, as on the mountain 
limestone and most mountain ranges. 

F. duriuscida. — In the valleys between such hills, and in the 
more sheltered pastures of the upland districts. 

F. rubra. — In the more sandy loams of the lowland meadow, 
and by the sea-shore. 

F. loliacea. — Rich meadows on river banks, or under irriga- 
tion, 

F. x>ratensis. — Best lowland meadows, not liable to floods. 

F. elatior. — On sandy clays, or other stiff and strong lands, 
especially on the sea-shore. 

The festucas are invariably present in our best pastures, and 
especially present in those of the most famous cheese districts. 

The F. pratensis is worth $3 33, where timothy is worth $5, 
per ton. It follows next after meadow fox-tail as an early grass, 
and affords a bite earlier than orchard-grass. 

He gave the Broniiis family a very bad name, adducing a 
number of experiments to show that it was neither agreeably 



132 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

nor nutritious to cattle. Broinus erectus was said to be the 
only perennial species in the genus. Early mowing was recom- 
niended as a means of extiipating this family. Pheasants are 
exceedingly fond of the seeds, and frequently pick ofl" the 
spikelets before the seeds are ripe, that they may enjoy the 
much coveted luxuiy. 

JOoUuni perrenne^ or Rye-grass, is still the favorite grass of 
England. It occupies there the same place that timothy does 
with us, and is probably better adapted to a wet climate like 
England than to a dry one like ours. Sixty varieties are culti- 
vated in England of this one species. One of the most remark- 
able of these is the viviparous Rye-grass, which grows there 
with great luxuriance. After midsummer it is strictly vivipa- 
rous, never producing either flowers or seeds, but young plants 
from the glumes, which, when the original plant is supported, 
will produce new plants from two to three inches in length. 

LoUum Italicwn, Italian Rye-grass, is worth $2 69 when 
timothy is worth $5. One hundred pounds of it give twenty- 
four and a half pounds of dry hay. It is best adapted to lime- 
stone and light soils, and is one of the most desirable varieties 
for irrigated meadows. 

Triticurn rejoens^ known as "quack," "twitch," or "dog" 
grass, is very easily recognized by its spikelet of eight- or ten- 
awned flowers placed flatwise toward the sachis. It is a terri- 
ble pest in altei'nate husbandry, growing in all sorts of soils, 
and robbing the cultivated plants of the richest portion of their 
food. In very dry seasons it may be killed by plowing it very 
thoroughly in July, and sowing the ground with buckwheat. 
Its culms (stalks) sometimes attain an altitude of three feet, 
but it ordinarily stands two feet high. It forms a tolerably 
good hay, and is much relished by the stock as a pasture grass. 
It operates as an emetic on dogs ; and is very useful in binding 
the sloping banks of railroads. 

Aiithoxanthum odoratum, Sweet-scented vernal grass, is not 
very valuable for hay or for pasture, as one hundred pounds of 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 133 

it give only nineteen and three-quarters pounds of dry hay. 
An acre only yields three-quarters of a ton of dry hay. It 
starts very early in the spring, and continues to throw out leaves 
during the sunnner. Its after-math is more valuable than the 
first growth, and is supposed to communicate the peculiar fla- 
vor Avhich characterizes the Philadelphia butter. 

Glyceria oiervata grows in wet places. Its culms (stalks) 
are extremely succulent; it is the hardiest grass in existence, 
and always grows more vigorously after a severe winter than 
after a mild one. 

Poa serotina, or Fowl-meadow, is one of the earliest grasses 
cultivated in this coimtry, and is still among the best. It does 
not injure by standing, as do other grasses; but may be cut at 
almost any time. Hares and rabbits are extremely fond of it. 
It is easily made into hay, and never seems hard or harsh, and 
produces sound seeds in great abundance. 

Trisetum sxihspicatum is a mean, stingy grass, growing on 
stiiF, clayey hill-sides which have a northern aspect. It is only 
fit to be grown on soils that will bear nothing else. 

Zizania aquatiea. — Mr. Gould spoke of this grass as grow- 
ing in places that were Avholly covered with water. It is very 
sweet and nutritious, and cows fed upon it have a copious flow 
of milk. In favorable situations it produces five or six tons to 
the acre, growing to the height of nine feet. Many birds, es- 
pecially the rail, fatten on it in autumn. The Indians collected 
its seeds, which resemble rice, and stored them for winter use. 

Mr. Gould spoke at great length of the clovers, detailing 
many interesting facts in relation to them, and giving much 
practical advice respecting their cultivation. He especially re- 
commended the increased culture of lucerne {inedicago sativa). 
The best soil for it is a sandy one, resting on a porous calcare- 
ous subsoil. Its roots penetrate fourteen feet in depth, and 
hence a hard subsoil is fatal to successful growth. It arrives at 
its greatest perfection after three years. In one recorded case, 
eleven acres sufficed to keep eleven horses two hundred and 



134 YALE AGUI CULTURAL LECTURES. 

ninety-nine days. In another, a field of eight acres kept eight 
horses thi-ee hundred and liCtecn days. In both cases a hirge 
number of sheep were fed on the ground after the last cutting 
for the liorses. Clianct.'llor Livingston, in Cohunbia county, 
N. Y., cut twenty-five tons from an acre in five mowings. It 
is ready for cutting about the first of May, and may be cut over 
every thirty days tliereafter. It is remarkably adapted for 
milch cows, where tlie milk is sold in the market, but butter 
made from it is not so sweet as from other grasses. It is greatly 
relished by both horses and cattle ; one hundred pounds of it 
will make twenty-five pounds of dry hay, and its nutritive 
powers bear such a relation to those of timothy, that it is worth 
$3 ].') ])er ton, when that grass is worth 15. 

The only diniculty with lucerne is, to get it started. It must 
be sown in drills, and carefully hoed until it is large enough to 
cover the ground. If this precaution is tak(!n, and a di'outh 
does not occur just as the young plants are starting, it will be 
pretty sure to succeed, and will last for tioenty-flre or thirty 
years. If, howevei", it is overruh with weeds in the beginning, 
or a severe drouth occurs, it grows feebly and soon dries out. 
The seed is covered with a very liard and compact coat, which, 
if the weather be dry, Avill greatly retard vegetation. It is, 
therefore, generally the practice to steep it in warm Avater, 
to soften the coat, for six or eight hours before sowing. From 
fourteen to eighteen pounds of seeds are usually sown on an 
acre ; but, as many of the seeds are imjierfect, and as fine and 
succulent plants are more desirable than coarse and rank ones, 
it is better economy to sow twenty-five pounds. 

The following table gives the comparative value of lucerne 
and common pasture. After being kej)t on lucerne for about 
ten days, the milk of three cows was separately measured, and 
the produce in Scotch pints was, on the 28th of May, as follows: 

No. L — Cnlved in Marcli, gavo. 13 pints. 

No. 2. — Calved la January, gave. . . . ;, 10^ " 

No. 3.— Calved in May, gave 10 " 



YALE AGllICULTURAL LECTURES. 135 

They were then put alternately in j^asture and lucerne during 
the following periods, when the produce was found to be: 





Pasture. 


Lucerne. 


Pasture. 


Lucerne. 




To June 8 


To June 13. 


To July 13. 


To July 19, 


No. 


1.— 121 pints. 


12| pints. 


10 pints. 


11 pints. 


No. 


2.— 9^ " ' 


lOj " 


9^ " 


10 


No. 


3.—lOh " 


10 " 


9 " 


8| " 



Mr. Gould spoke at length of sainfoin, tares, and succory, 
and after the conclusion of the lecture he exhibited the vari- 
ous grasses of which he had spoken, to the more zealous stu- 
dents, and gave thera particular instruction in the botanical 
analysis of the different genera and species. He urged them 
very earnestly to make themselves experts in the botany of the 
grasses, assuring them that this svas essential to the acquisi- 
tion of a correct knowledge respecting them. And I am happy 
to know that a large number of the students expressed them- 
selves determined to enter vigorously on the study of the 
grasses, and forage plants of our country. 



SEVENTEENTH DAY.— Feb. 20, 1860. 

This, the fourth and last week of the course, is especially de- 
voted to the subject of stock-breeding ; but Professor B. Silli- 
MAN, Jr., gave us this morning a lecture on Meteorology, 
devoting the hour to a very simple and elementary discussion 
of the phenomena of the atmosj)here as respects the fell of rain 
and the distribution of temperature, describing the thermome- 
ter, hygrometer, and rain-gauge. 

He spoke briefly of climates, and seasons, and the influence 
of the Sim, not only in causing the differences of seasons, but 
on the mean daily temperature. The mean daily tempei-ature 
at Philadelphia had been found to be one degree above the 
temperature at 9 A. M. The average annual temperature of 
the atmosphere diminishes from the equator towards the poles. 



136 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

But the temperature is not the same for places in the same lat- 
itude in tlie two hemispheres, as is seen in the following table : 



PLACES. 


I.AT. TEMP. 


PLACES. 


LAT. 




TEMP. 


Falkland Isles, 


51" S 47° 23 


London, 


51° 31' 


N 


50° -72 


Buenos Ayres, 


34° 36' S 62^ G 


Savannah, 


32° 05' 


N 


64° -58 


Rio Janeiro, 


22=- 5G' S 73° 96 


Calcutta, 


22° 35' 


N 


78° -44 



This variation is owing to a variety of local causes, such as 
the elevation and form of the land, proximity to large bodies 
of water, the general direction of winds, etc. 

The temperature of the air diminishes with the altitude. As 
a general rule, it may be stated that there is a diminution in 
temperature of 1° F, for every 343 feet of elevation. On ris- 
ing from near the level of the sea, the rate of decrease is more 
rapid ; after a certain height is reached it proceeds more 
slowly ; but in very elevated regions it again increases. 

It follows from this that in every latitude, at a certain eleva- 
tion, there must be a point where moisture once frozen must 
ever remain congealed. The lowest point at which this is at- 
tained is called the limit of perpetual snow, or the snow-line. 
This point is highest near the equator, and sinks towards either 
pole, as is shown in the table. 



PLA0K8. 


LATITUDE. 


SNOW LINES. 


Straits of Magellan, 


54° S 


3,760 feet. 


Chili, 


41° S 


6,009 " 


Quito, 


00° 


15,807 " 


Mexico, 


19° N 


14,163 " 


JEina, 


37° 30' N 


9,531 " 


Kamtschatka, 


56° 40' N 


5,248 " 



Isothermal lines were very briefly illustrated from a map of 
the United States; on which were traced from the map in the 
Patent Office Report for 18.56-7, the lines of summer and win- 
ter tempei'ature in various latitudes. The great value and 
importance of such researches to agriculture were insisted on 
by the lecturer as giving the only rational explanation to 
anomalies of climate, etc., otherwise inexplicable. The great 
contrast between the latitudes and isothermes of wheat and 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 137 

other grains, of the limits of the vine, of maize, etc., was pointed 
out on a chart, and in this connection the smnnier chmate of 
British Cohimbia was aUuded to. He also called attention to 
the marked difference in the winter climates of the two oceanic 
borders of the continent, as compared with, the corresponding 
latitudes in the interior. 

The Aqueous Phenomena of the atmosphere were next con- 
sidered. The pi-esence of moisture in the air at all times was 
explained, its amount depending on the temperature. 

That the capacity for moisture is greater as the temperature 
increases was shown by the following table. 

A body of air can absorb : 

At 32° F. the 160tli part of its own weigiit of watery vapor. 
" 59° " " 80th " " " " 

" 86° " " 40th " " " " 

"113° " " 20th " " " " 

It will be noticed that for every 'H° of temjierature above 
32°, the capacity of air for moisture is doubled. From this it 
follows, that while the temperature of the air advances in an 
arithmetical series, its capacity for moisture is accelerated in a 
geometrical series. 

The lecturer here exhibited various forms of hygrometers, 
and illustrated their use experimentally : — Saussure's hair hy- 
grometer, various hi/groscoi)es, Daniells' condensation hygrom- 
eter, and August's hygrometer of evaporation. He also exhib- 
ited a simple substitute for the costly condensation hygrometer, 
being nothing but a bright silver goblet or tumbler containing 
Avater and lumps of ice. The first condensation of dew on the 
polished metallic surface is watched for, and the instant it ap- 
pears the difference between the thermometer in the iced 
water and the air is noted. This gives the dew point, or tem- 
perature at which fog would be produced. 

The mode of measuring the rain flxll was also described. 
One of the simplest rain-gauges was a cylindrical vessel of tin, 
or copper, furnished with a float : the rain falling into the ves- 



138 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

sel, the float rises. The stem is graduated so that a depth of 
water of one one-hundredth of an inch is easily measured. 

The unequal distribution of rain over the surface of the earth 
was touched upon, and the influence of mountain ranges was 
pointed out in causing precipitation of rain. As a general rule 
the amount of rain was in propoition to the average tempera- 
ture ; or, what is the same thing, to the amount of evaporation: 
local causes, howevei*, very greatly modify this general rule. 
The number of rainy days beai's no proportion (or an inverse 
cue) to the amount of rain which tails in particular latitudes. 
Thus while the yearly fall of rain in the tropics is ninety-five 
inches, there are not over seventy rainy days ; while here, with 
an annual rain fall of about forty inches, we have one hun- 
dred and tliii'ty or more rainy days. The following table 
shows that the ordinary rains of the tropical regions are more 
powerful tlian those of the temperate regions. 



M. LATITUDE. 


MEAN ANNUAL NUMBER OF EAINY DATS. 


From 12" to 43" 


78. 


a 430 u 4eo 


103. 


" 46° '• 50° 


134. 


" 50° " 60<' 


16L 



In the northern part of the United States there are, on the 
average, about 134 rainy days in the year ; in the southern 
part, about 103. 

The greatest annual depth of rain occurs at San Luis, Maran- 
ham, 280 inclies ; the next in order are Vera Cruz, 278 ; Gre- 
nada, 126; Cape Fran9ois, 120; Calcutta, 81; Rome, 39; 
London, 25; Uttenberg, 12"5. In our country the average 
annual fall is 39'23 inches ; at Hanover, N. H., 38 ; New York 
state, 36 ; Ohio, 4-2 ; Missouri, 38-205. 

Prof Silliman illustrated these general principles by an anal- 
ysis of the average results observed by Dr. S. P. Hildreth, at 
Marietta, Ohio, Lat. 39^ 25' N", and Long. 4^ 28' W of Wash- 
ington city, for 31 years, from 1823 to 1859. It appeared from 
these tables that the rain fall at Marietta varied from 61*84 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 139 

inches in 1858 (the wettest year iu 40, and one in which there 
were only 170 fair days) to 32-46 inches in 1856 ; the average 
of the whole period being 42 inches. 

The time permitted only a cursory allusion to the other 
aqueous phenomena of dew, frost, and hail. The lecturer 
pointed out the defects of common thermometers, and the 
mode of selecting a good one. He remarked that between 
32° and 212'^ Fahrenheit it was easy to select an instrument 
which would indicate the temperature within one or two de- 
grees of accuracy. He exhibited, however, four instruments 
taken that day from the stock of a dealer, from which he read 
as follows : 64'=' ; 62° ; 65° ; and 06°. Below 32'-' common 
thermonieters were generally very unreliable ; the difference 
amounting near zero often to more than 10'^. He stated that 
in old thermometers the point of freezing (32'^) was found 
almost uniformly too high, and that the readings of old ther- 
mometers were as a rule too high. This was owing to a per- 
manent displacement of the zero point, partly arising from 
atmospheric pressure on the surface of the ball, and partly 
from the slow contraction of the glass subsequent to the heat- 
ing to which it was subject in filling. 

He gave practical rules for the exposure and observation of 
thermometers. A thermometer should never be hung against 
the wall of a house, for the radiated heat makes the mercury 
rise often as much as 4*^. It should be placed on a post in the 
yard. It has been proved that iu our country the temperature 
at 9 A. M. will be just 1° less than the average of the whole 
day. If our thermometer marks 50*^ at that hour, we may 
know that the day will average just 51°. The coldest hour of 
the day is 7 A. M., and the warmest 2 P. M. 

He concluded by commending to farmers the study of me- 
teorology, as an important element of the practical education 
on which success in agriculture must depend. 

Mr. Sandfobd Howard, of The Boston Cultivator^ gave a 



140 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

lecture on horses, at 3 o'clock. He referred to the great diver- 
sity of appearances between the heavy Flemish or English 
dray-horse, which will weigh a ton, and the little ponies that 
scamper over the hills of Shetland. The heavy horse will al- 
ways be found in plain countries, and good and fertile districts. 
Horses may be divided into three classes: — first, gallopers, or 
runners ; second, trotters ; third, walkers. The lordly Arab 
steed of the desert is the type of the former class, as also is 
the so-called thoroughbred racer ; the trim-built Morgan, of the 
second ; and the heavy Conestoga and Clydesdale, of the 
third. The horse is not a native of America, but has been 
introduced at various points from various sources. The wild 
horses of Mexico and some Soutii American countries have 
sprung from the animals brought over by the Sjianiards. The 
German settlers of Pennsylvania introduced the heavy draught- 
horse of their fatherland. The French settlers of Canada 
brought another breed — the ancestors of the Canadian horse 
of to-day. The modern Norman, or Pereheron horse, has been 
introduced into New Jersey. The English and Scotch of 
Canada West have brought over their Clydesdales and other 
draught horses. The race-horse has found a home in many 
parts of our country ; and so all sections have derived their 
horse stock from the Old World. 

For long distances, with a heavy Aveight on the back, at a 
galloping pace, the true Ai'ab is the best model. For short 
distances, at headlong speed, and with light weights to carry, 
the English racer, or " thoroughbred," is required. Of trotters, 
for quick di-iving in light vehicles, the "roadster" best meets the 
requirements, — the best American horses of this description 
being probably superior to any in the world — certainly sujje- 
rior to the English. For city coach-horses, less speed and 
hardiness being needed, an animal of more size is called for ; 
a purjDose for which the Cleveland Bay, or a mixture of the 
race-horse with some large-sized stock answers well. For om- 
nibuses and horse-raib'oad cars, a more muscular horse, able 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 141 

to endure hardship, is preferable ; and the French "Percheron" 
is well adapted to this work. Of horses, the uses of which 
only require a walk, and where heavy burdens are to be drawn, 
a conformation more adapted to strength and less for speed is 
necessary. For heavy draught, some of the English and Scot- 
tish breeds are best. For farming work, where horses are 
wholly used, and for drays, carts, &c., of cities, the Suflfolk and 
Clydesdale breeds Avould be preferable to the horses now 
generally used for these purposes in this country. 

In general, and especially for racers, roadsters, and draught- 
horses, it is better to keep the varieties distinct, breeding each 
in reference to a standard or ideal. If experiments in crossing 
are made, they should be conducted with caution, and in such 
a manner as not to hazard a loss of the valuable properties al- 
ready possessed by an established breed. 



EIGHTEENTH DAY.— Feb. 21, 1860. 

Mr. Charles L. Flint, Secretary of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Agriculture, and author of standard works on 
"Grasses and Forage Plants," and "Milch Cows and Dairy 
Farming," gave, to-day, in his first discourse, a number of val- 
uable hints to dairymen, and much information of general in- 
terest. His lecture was listened to with great attention. 

Mr. Flint called attention to the fact that the dairy qualities 
of oxir stock are artificial, and mainly the result of care and 
breeding. The cow, in her wild state, gives only enough milk 
to nourish her offspring for a short period, and then goes dry 
tlie rest of the year. The prime object of the farmer is to de- 
velop and improve her milking qualities, and hence he should 
select his cows with reference to the amount of food he has 
for thenL Large animals require rich and luxuriant pastures, 
or they lose their fair proportions and deteriorate on a stinted 
nourishment. The objects of the dairyman should be kept in 



142 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

view in selecting his cows. The animal most profitable for a 
milk dairy may be very unprofitable for a butter or cheese 
dairy. The first cattle imported into New England arrived at 
Plymouth in 1624, and they are described as of a variety of 
colors. These, with the importations of Capt. John Mason, 
from Denmark into New Hampshire, in 1631-4, laid the foun- 
dation of the native stock of New England ; and this stock 
must be regarded as an exceedingly valuable foundation for 
improvement, which may be eflfected either by careful and ju- 
dicious selections, or by crossing with foreign and already 
highly improved breeds. 

Grades are often more valuable for practical purposes on the 
farm than pure breeds. In breeding it is important to have a 
specific object in view, as for beef, milk, or labor — the complete 
union of these qualities being, to a considerable extent, imprac- 
ticable. Great milkers are rarely very handsome animals. 
They seldom have the well-rounded forms of fattening animals, 
but are often coarser looking and more angular. In breeding 
to produce large milkers, it is especially important to select 
males that come from great milking cows — since the dairy 
qualities are transmitted more surely through the male offspring. 
The most celebrated dairy breeds are the Swiss, the Dutch, the 
Jersey, and the Ayrshire. The Jerseys give the richest milk, 
and the Ayrshires the largest quantity, in proportion to the 
food consumed and their size, and are very valuable as a means 
of improving our common or grade stock. But, whatever 
breed is selected, success will mainly depend on the care and 
management, and especially on the food. Very little milk 

COMES OUT OF THE BAG THAT IS NOT FIRST PUT INTO THE THROAT. 

It is poor economy to overstock the farm, as is too often the 
case : the cows come out of the stall in spring in no condition for 
the profitable production of milk. The cow should be regarded 
as an instrument of transformation ; a machine, for the manufac- 
ture of milk. The food is the raw material, milk the product 
— salable, and always in demand. The machine is the capital 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 143 

invested, costing nearly as much when not running as when run- 
ning on full steam. How absurd, therefore, how mihusiness-like, 
for the farmer to slacken up the supply of raw material, or by 
neglect, exposure, or otherwise, to suffer the machine to get out 
of order, or to yield a product far below its natural capacity. 

Regularity of feeding is next in importance to a full supply 
of nutritious food, and cows thrive better on a good and regu- 
lar system, than on a larger amount fed at irregular intervals. 

Cows in milk ought not to be exposed to cold in winter. 
They require less food and give more milk if kept housed. 
They ought not to be even turned out to Avater in extreme cold 
days, and they will be sure to fall off in milk if they are. The 
loss from a neglect of this precaution is often far greater than 
farmers are aware of. The cow should be kept in a sound and 
healthy condition by judicious feeding and exercise, but expo- 
sure in extreme cold weather is never advisable. Moist and 
succulent food increases the quantity of milk ; dry food, as hay, 
alone, makes a thicker quality. Food rich in starch, gum, 
sugar, &c., increases the butter in milk. 

Quietness also promotes the secretion of fat, and increases 
the richness of milk. Green grass is more nutritious and more 
digestible than hay, which, like all other coarse and dry food, 
is made more nutritious by cutting and moistening, or steaming. 
All ruminating animals require more or less bulky food, the 
bulk contributing to the healthy activity of the digestive or- 
gans. The most valuable additions to this branch of farming 
(have been made by the elaborate and successful experiments of 
Mr. Horsfall, Avho found that he could make as much and as rich 
butter in winter as in summer. His whole course of manage- 
ment has been republished in this country in the appendix to 
the lecturer's Treatise on Milch Cows and Dairy Farming. 

Particular attention Avas called to the management of young 
heifers, and the time when they should be allowed to come in, 
as well as to the care which should be taken to prevent any 
fjiulty habit or constitutional defect to become fixed upon them. 



144 YALE AGRICULTURAL^.ECTURES. 

Siipiiose, for instance, a heifer should come in in winter, or in 
very cold Ave.ather, wliich would prevent the distension of the 
tissues of the skin, and she should be fed on dry food., which had 
little tendency to develop the milk vessels, or the organs of 
secretion. These organs will adapt themselves to supply a small 
yield of milk, and thus a habit may be fixed upon the animal 
for life, or which it might be difficult to overcome entirely 
afterward. Hence, some of the external signs of a good milk- 
ing cow are found on animals whose product does not justify 
expectations. 

A young cow with her first and second calf should be made, 
by judicious feeding, to give a large quantity, and to hold out 
well, and by gentle treatment, to be docile and obedient. 

A certain shepherd-lecturer at a flirm-school in Saxony, illus- 
trates his lectures on breeding by presenting before his class 
sheep of various breeds and diverse qualities. So far as my 
information extends, it has never been attempted in this coun- 
try before to-day, — when Mr. Theodore S. Gold placed on the 
stage a Cotswold, a Merino, and a Southdown. The latter 
arrived a little after the lecturer had concluded, but was seen 
by many then present. It is a new, and a most capital 
idea ; and hereafter, he wlio will lecture on sheep without the 
living illustrations ready for reference, will be behind the age. 

The sheep, as Mr. G. justly remarked, has been associated with 
man from the time of Abel, and in some countries is now the 
chief national wealth. In Saxony, not larger than Connecticut 
and Rhode Island, there are 3,500,000 sheep ; England and 
Wales produce 36,000,000 ; while in the whole territory of the 
United States we raise only 21,000,000. It must be remembered 
that in the great sheep countries of Europe, firming has perhaps 
arrived at its greatest perfection of development — a circum- 
stance which should weigh well with our farmers, whose poor hilly 
lands will barely keep them and their families above starvation, 
under the present cropping with Indian corn ^and the cereals. 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 145 

The " felting" property of wool is due to the peculiarly rough 
or barbed character of its outside, which causes it to adhere 
together in mass, and a woollen garment to shrink and become 
thicker when washed. " Fulling" is another name for the same 
quality; "fulled cloth" being the name given to the article 
made by subjecting woollen cloth to the action of Avater, and 
jjressure in a machine. By aid of the microscope, we see that 
the fibre of wool is covered with a multitude of leaf-like serra- 
tions (saw-tooth projections), pointing upward like the leaves 
on a shoot. The curved form of the wool fibre favors its felt- 
ing, but it is to these million invisible hooks that we must look 
for an explanation of the property. Now, in the finer grades 
of wool there is the greatest number of these tentatious hooks 
in a given length, and hence their superiority for close textured 
and fine goods. This little exj^lanation will give our farmer 
friends an insight into the subject of breeding sheep for various 
purposes. The Mermo is, above all, the wool-maker of fine 
quality. Leicester wool is famous in England for combing, or 
Avorsted making, but is much coarser than Merino. "Yolk," 
or " gum," is the name of a glutinous secretion from the skin of 
the sheep, which coats and adheres to the wool. It is a true 
potash soap, and if it Avere not for the presence of free animal 
oil Avith which it is mixed, avooI might be AA-ashed without the 
use of soap. It is most abundant in fine-woolled sheep, and is 
more largely secreted in the fat sheep than in a lean one. 

It is very desirable to grow sheep that will have an equal 
degree of fineness of wool over a large portion of the body, and 
success in this respect marks the good breeder, " Trueness" 
is a term used to indicate the evenness of fibre in size through- 
out its whole length. When the sheep, from disease or want 
of food, becomes poor, the wool fibre is rendered weak and al- 
most ceases to groAV. When it starts again, it breaks easily at 
this weak point, being what is termed " breachy," and the wool 
is called " unsound." Its value is greatly depreciated by this 
circumstance. Let those who starve their sheep take the 
7 



146 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

hint. The best health is obtained by neither over-feeding nor 
starving. 

The lecturer gave sketches of the vai'ions outlandish breeds 
of sheep found in various parts of the world, among which 
were the "fat-tailed" fomily, the "fat-rumpod" sheep of Asia, 
the many-horned sheep of Cyprus and Iceland, the Siberian, 
Tartarian, Riissian, and others. It is not known if the Merino 
is a native of Spain. Beside that breed, there is in Spain an- 
other— a coarse-woolled, large variety, to improve which a num- 
ber of Cotswold bucks were imported iu the fifteenth century. 
Royal ordinances in time were })assed favoring the improve- 
ment of the Merino, and great progress has been made in that 
direction. The number of Merinos in Spain is estimated from 
four millions upward. The native sheep of France were coarse, 
ill-formed animals, but in 178(5 the Government purchased 376 
sheep, selected from the best flocks of Spain, and jahiced them 
at Rambouillet, in the neighborhood of Paris, Avhere there was 
an establisliment devoted to bi'eeding of animals. George III, 
in 1791, introduced the Merino into England ; but although 
found to improve in size of carcass and in other particulars, 
they had given place to the true English breeds, because found 
less profitable. The " middle wools," embracing the Southdown, 
Norfolk, Dorset, Ryland, Cheviot, and others, are tamous for 
their mutton. The Cheviots are the most hardy sheep of 
Great Britain, among the improved breeds, and any one who 
would try them in New England would be a public benclactor. 
They thrive on bleak hill-sides and poor pastures, and their 
meat is excellent. The Southdown is a native of the chalky 
hills of Southern England, on which grows a short, nutritious 
grass, well suited to mutton-making. By skilful breeding 
they have been brought well-nigh to perfection as regards 
shape, and their meat is mpst prized, combining as it does fat- 
ness with tender, lean meat, and having a flavor equal to the 
Highland mutton. 

One hundred years ago, Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, England, 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 147 

undertook tlie improvement of the Leicesters, and created a 
magnificent family known as the Bakewell, or Dishley sheep. 
It was his aim by careful selection and breeding to combine, 
if i)ossible, fineness of bone, beauty, symmetry of form, and 
tendency to fatten, with weight of carcass and a good yield of 
M'ool. His success is shown in the fact, that while he let his 
first ram for ITs. 6d. in 1760, he got in 1789, for one single 
ram, 1,000 guineas, and cleared 130,000 in that year by letting 
liis rams. 

Beside the sheep, Mr. Gold had samples of wool of all breeds, 
which he exhibited to us, and a number of engravings of fa- 
mous sheep, taken from various works. 



NINETEENTH DAY.— Feb. 22, 1860. 

We have had to-day a very interesting session, the several 
lectures being replete with good points, and some of them es- 
pecially worthy of consideration. The lecturers were, sever- 
ally, Mr. Flint, on the Dairy Business; Mr. Gold, on Sheep, 
-and I'rofessor Silliman, Jr. 

Milk, said Mr. Flint, as the first product of the cow, is com- 
posed of an oily substance, which gives it its richness; of a case- 
ous, or cheesy substance, which gives it its strength ; and of a 
serous, or watery substance, which makes it refreshing as a 
beverage ; Avith a small percentage of sugar of milk, to which it 
owes its sweetness, and a slight proportion of alkaline substances, 
to which are due its medicinal properties. Under the micro- 
scope, it appears to be filled with myriads of little round glob- 
ules, which float in the watery substance, and which rise to the 
surface in the form of cream, the largest pavticles rising first, 
and being the richest in butter. These globules are the butter 
particles, surrounded with a cheesy film, and the object of 
churning is to break this film, or coating, and to disengage the 



148 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

l)uttor particles. The different constituents of milk separate on 
account of a difference in specific gravity. Milk will ordinarily 
prodiu-e from ten to fifteen per cent, of cream, though it ia 
sometimes much richer than this, and twenty-five per cent, is 
sometimes, though rarely, obtained. The product in cream is 
more regular in several different lots of milk than the butter 
product which can be obtained from that cream. Caseine most 
resembles animal m.atter in composition and in nutritive quali- 
ties. The richest and most delicate butter is made from cream 
which has not stood long on the milk, — the cream that rises 
first making a far sweeter and better quality of butter than 
that which has stood a long time. If the milk is set in a favor- 
able position, on shelves some feet from the bottom of the railk- 
room, around Avhich a circulation of pure air can be had, from 
twelve to eighteen hours, in summer, is sufficient to raise all 
the best of the cream ; and all that rises, under ordinary cir- 
cumstances, after twenty-four hours, M-ill deteriorate the quality 
to a greater extent than it increases the quantity. This is an 
important practical point, and ought to lead to the most care- 
ful experiments on the part of dairymen, who have been accus- 
tomed to let their milk stand for thiity-six and even forty-eight 
hours. An ordinary house-cellar is very rarely a suitable place 
to set milk, and it should never be sot on the bottom of a cel- 
lar, if it is to raiso cream. The bad gases (carbonic acid, and 
others, perhaps,) iti the room, are near the bottom, and are apt 
to make the cream acrid. It will produce an infi-rior butter. 
The square box-churn is one of the best and most economical 
forms. To prepare new butter-boxes as quickly as possible, so 
as to make them fit to use to send butter in to market, or to the 
exhibition, dissolve common, or bicarbonate of, soda in boil- 
ing water, as much as the water will dissolve, taking water 
enough to fill the boxes, and at the rate of about a pound of 
soda for a thirty-two pound butter-box. Pour the water in 
npon it, and let it stand over night, and the box may be used 
the next day without fear of its tainting the butter. A delicate 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 149 

butter may be made by burying tlie cream in a cloth a foot 
deep in the ground, and leaving it for twelve hours or more. 

Cheese has been used from a remote antiquity. Its varieties 
are ahnost infinite. This most important branch of American 
industry, the management of the dairy, involves the investment 
of a vast amount of capital, the aggregate profits of which de- 
pend largely upon individual judgment and skill ; and any addi- 
tion, however small, to the value per pound of the butter and 
cheese, would add vastly to the material wealth of the dairy- 
man, and of the country at large. These articles are generally 
the last of either the luxuries or the necessaries of life, in which 
city customers are disposed to economize. They must and will 
have a good article, and are ready to pay for it in proportion 
to its goodness. 

The great nicety and patience required to produce a first- 
rate quality of butter and cheese, and the gradually-increasing 
aversion of our farmers' wives and daughters to manual labor, 
have caused, in some districts, the butter and cheese dairies to 
give place to mere milk production ; and sometimes low prices 
and cost of transportation to market have prevented the farmer 
from realizing a profit. Poor butter is at all times a drug in 
the market, and as the best can only be got by the most care- 
ful })ainstaking, Mr. Flint suggested that by imitating the 
"Dairy Associations," or '•'■fraitieres'''' of the Swiss Cantons, 
New England farmers might largely increase their profits at 
small risk. In the Western Reserve, there already exist cheese 
manufactories, or establislunents, conducted by private indi- 
viduals, for which all the milk of a large district is curdled and 
supplied at a stipulated price. The plan is said to have proved 
successful, and is found to be a public convenience. That part 
of the Swiss plan which Mi". Flint thinks best worthy of adop- 
tion in New England, is, to establisli at a central point, in a vil- 
lage or neighborhood, a dairy establishment, under the charge 
of a thoroughly skilful overseer and trained assistants, supplied 
with all manner of improved presses, vats, chums, and other 



150 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

paraphernalia, — the comjjleteness of the outfit being regulated 
by the amount of business to be done. This might be made 
by a joint stock association, or private individuals; the former 
being preferable, for a single proprietor would aim to get his 
curd at the lowest possible price, Avhereas under the joint stock 
plan the cost of manufacture is lessened and the common profit 
increased. The dairy furnishes to all subscribers rennet of the 
best quality, and requires them to follow a cei-tain dairy man- 
agement on the farm. At regular intervals the wagons go 
about to collect the curds, and the farmer gets his pay either 
for them, or for the cheese sold. In like manner, the cream 
could be sent for conversion into butter. Or if skim-milk 
cheese and butter were both made, both cream and curds 
would be sent to the central dairy. Allowing the practica- 
bility of this plan, and I can see no great reasons to the con- 
trary, its manifest superioiity is, I think, apparent. The dairy 
would become so famous for superior butter and cheese, that 
an extra price could always be obtained for them in market. 
In the Canton de Vaud, the butter made in these dairy estab- 
lishments actually commands in market from one-fifth to one- 
sixth more per povmd than that made at the small firms about; 
and in our country, where private wealth is more evenly dis- 
tributed, the diflTerence would undoubtedly be greater. Mr. 
Thomas Mottley, Jr., the West Roxbury breeder, gets fifty 
cents per pound for his Aldeniey butter in Boston, a fact 
which sufliciently shows that there are plenty of persons ready 
and willing to pay au enormous price for a superior article. 

The care of sheep formed the subject of the lecture of Mr, 
Gold. It should always be the object of the flock- master to 
keep his sheep in a thriving condition. The quality of the 
wool, as well as its quantity, and the general productiveness 
of the flock, demand this system. 

Shelter is the first necessity in providing for wintering sheep 
successfully. The Southdowns will bear exposure better than 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 151 

any other class of sheep. The open fleece of the long-woolled 
parts on the back when wet, and admits the water, which com- 
pletely drenches the animal, so that his abundant fleece is no 
longer a protection from cold. 

Economy in feeding demands shelter for all sheep, as not 
only less food is required, but also, it is better preserved from 
waste. Water-soaked hay, or that which is in any way soiled, is 
always rejected. The improvement in the quality of the ma- 
nure forms another argument in favor of shelter. That this is 
not only healthful, but grateful to the sheep at all seasons of 
the year, we see in the fact that even in summer they will 
seek their winter sheds at the approach of a storm, if they are 
Avithin their reach. 

Ventilation is of paramount importance, as connected with 
shelter ; and to insure this, sheds, open to the south, are to be 
preferred, A stable with an open window will answer for a 
very small number, but the crowding of a large flock in such, 
a place affects the organs of respiration, and may result in se- 
rious disease, and should never be tolerated. 

The best form of rack has posts three feet high in the cor- 
ners, a bottom of boards, the sides and ends of two boards 
each, the lower one the widest, with narrow perpendicular 
strips nailed on, to keep the stronger sheep from crowding the 
weaker. The spaces are larger in their perj^endicular than their 
horizontal opening. The size of these, as well as the width of 
the rack, must be in proportion to the size of the slieep. Not 
more than one hundred of the fine-woolled sheep should be con- 
fined in the same yard, while the long-woolled will not thrive 
with more than twenty-five. A hospital^ snug and comfoi'table, 
should receive any sheep that may be weak from, age or disease, 
till, by careful feedmg and nursing, they can be returned to the 
flock. 

It is the worst possible practice to allow the sheep to fall 
away in flesh, as the grass fixils in autumn. The increasing 
wool conceals the shrinking carcass, much to the disappoint- 
5* 



152 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES- 

ment of the careless flockmasters. Better confine them in the 
yard than allow them to ramble about in search of some field 
of winter grain, which furnishes a little green food, but too 
light to be of any real value. 

"Winter fodder should embrace, in addition to the dry food, 
a due proportion of that which is green and succulent. Fine 
early cut clover hay, well cured, or that from old meadows, 
consisting of a variety of grasses, forms the best dry fodder. 
Economy demands that its quality should be good, else much 
Avaste ensues ; yet the sheep is very fond of variety, and almost 
all of the so-called weeds become choice morsels. The botan- 
ist knows full well that a sheep-range will be most barren of 
the objects of his search. The immortal Linnaeus tested the 
plants indigenous to Sweden by ofiering them, fresh gathered, 
to the various domesticated animals. 

Horses ate 262 species, and rejected 212 ; cattle ate 276 spe- 
cies, and refused 218, while sheep took readily 387, and refused 
only 141 species. For fattening, add to the hay, roots, and 
grain, linseed or cotten-seed meal. The English system of winter 
feeding on turnips in the field is here prevented by excessive 
cold. Use them in the yards in moderate weather. Sudden 
changes from green to dry food, and the reverse should be 
avoided. Regularity in the hours of feeding is very impor- 
tant. 

The amount of fodder varies with the kind of sheep, though 
it is not directly pi'oportioned to the live weight. Ten small 
fine-woolled sheep will eat as much as a cow, the larger ones 
requiring more. 2 to 2^ or even 3^ per cent, of the live weight 
in hay value, is estimated by diflTerent authors as daily required. 

No other animals except calves should lie in the yards with 
sheep. The losses from tlie horns of steers and the heels of 
colts more than balance any supposed gain. As the breathing 
of the sheep on the hay does not of itself render it distasteful 
to cattle, it may be gathered from the racks and fed in another 
enclosure. 



'' YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 153 

It is estimated that 300 pounds of good hay will winter a 
small sheeiD, while laro-er ones may take three times the amount. 

Watei' is absolutely necessaiy to the thrift of sheep in the 
winter. It is best brought into the yards, as the steep banks 
of streams prove dangerous to the sheep. 

Salt may be provided in winter by a moderate salting of 
the hay two to four quarts a ton : but excessive salting must 
be avoided, as on such neither sheep nor cattle will thrive. 

As the lambing season approaches, snug quarters must be 
provided for the breeding ewes, Avhere they can be clean, warm, 
and dry. Tliey will seek the necessary seclusion in the open lield. 

The increase from a flock of Merino or Saxony ewes, which 
rarely twin, may be from 80 to 100 per cent., while in the South- 
down or Cotswold, 150 per cent., or even more may be raised. 

Little can be hoped from legislative action as a protection 
from dogs. Bells attached to the necks of a few sheep in each 
flock deter the cowardly curs, or give warning of their attacks. 

Sheep washing, shearing, and rolling the wool demand care- 
ful attention. Diseases come mostly from carelessness, and 
prevention must be our resource. The age of the sheep is de- 
termined by the teeth, but such irregularities arise in these as 
well as in other animals, that the Connecticut State Agricultural 
Society have decided to receive satisfactory testimony as to the 
age of any animal, rather than to depend on the indications 
of the teeth. 

Of the three breeds on the stage, for the food consumed, 
the Merinos yield the most wool, the Cotswolds the most mut- 
ton, and the Southdowns mutton of the best quality. 

The celebrated experiment of Lawesand Gilbert in England 
on 50 sheep, of each of the most celebrated British breeds, proves 
the Cotswold as giving for the food the most wool and mutton ; 
the Southdown the least; yet, sold in Smithfield, the South- 
down brought three cents per pound the most, so that the re- 
sults as to profit were equal. 

The Southdown is eminently fitted for the light lands of New 

IT* 



154 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

England ; and when sheei^ husbandry shall have attained its 
proper place, it will be found as a chief instrument in that result, 
and their flocks will cover a thousand hills. 

Prof B. SiLLiMAN, Je.'s second lecture on Meteorology was 
devoted to a description of the barometer, in its various forms, 
and the practical rules derived from its observation, applicable 
to the business of agriculture. 

He first illustrated experimentally the discovery of the ba- 
rometer, by Torricelli, in 164.3, By means of an air-pump and 
two barometers, one in and the other out of the vacuum, he 
illustrated the influence of the atmospheric presence at the 
height of the mercurial column. 

The model of the mercui-y barometer, made by Green, of New 
York, after the directions of Prof Guyot, of the Smithsonian 
Institution, was exhibited, as well as other forms of this instru- 
ment. 

He alluded to the practical objections to the mercurial ba- 
rometer as an instrument for general use — its cost, if well made, 
and its unavoidable delicacy and fragility, — which must always 
act as a bar to its general use by the farmer. 

Fortunately we had, in the " aneroid " barometer, an instru- 
ment free from these objections. Sufiiciently cheap, not liable 
to be disordered easily, and withal sensitive and accurate 
enough for the use which is made of the barometer as a 
" vieather prophet.'''' He proceeded to give a popular descrip- 
tion of the essential features of the aneroid barometer (or ba- 
rometer " without a fluid," as the term implies). This instrument 
was invented by Mr. Vidi, of Paris ; it is without mercury, and 
consists of a flat and circular metallic box, the cover of Avhich 
is very thin and corrugated, or in ridges and furrows, concentric 
Avith the walls. The air is exhausted from this box, which is 
then hermetically sealed. The result is, that the elastic cover 
rises and falls with every change in atmospheric pressui-e. By 
means of a combination of leveis and springs, these move- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 155 

nients are communicated from the centre of the cover to a 
pointer which moves over the gracluateil face of a card, on 
wliich inches and hundredths are inscribed. The whole apparatus 
is encased in a brass box, about four inches in diameter and 
two inches deep, covered with a front glass, and resembling in 
general appearance a chronometer case. 

These instruments are now made by Mr. E. Kendall, of New 
Lebanon Spa, N. Y., well known everywhere for his mercurial 
thermometers. His instruments compare well with the French, 
and with the movements of the mercurial barometer, and sell 
for the moderate price of ten dollars, or one-third the cost of a 
Smithsonian barometer. Although for purposes of scientific 
accuracy nothing can replace the old form of mercurial ba- 
rometer, Prof. Silliman did not hesitate to recommend the 
aneroid as the best barometer for the use of the farmer. 
Numerous testimonials, from farmers who had used them, 
showed their utility in enabling the farmer to choose the time 
of cutting and curing his hay, planting, &g. 

Prof Sillimaia explained why the words " fair," " change- 
able," " foul," " tempest," &c., &c., written on the scale of the 
cheap forms of mercury barometers were entirely unreliable. 
It was only at the sea level that the barometer stood at an 
average height of thirty inches, and hence a mere change of 
place, rising a few hundred feet, would make the barometer 
fall permanently below '•'■fair weather^^'' Avhatever the fice of 
the sky might say to the contrary. That the use of the barom- 
eter might be better understood, he enumerated the follow- 
ing general rules, which embody the results of long and various 
experience in different places : 

1. When the mercury is very low, high winds and stormy 
are likely to prevail. 

2. Generally the rising of the mercury indicates, the approach 
of fair weather ; the falling of it shows the approach of foul 
weather. 

3. In sultry weather the falling of the uiercury indicates 



156 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

coming thunder. In winter, tlie rise of mercury indicates 
frost. In frosty weather, its fall indicates thaw, and its rise 
indicates snow. 

4. Whatever change of weather suddenly follows a change 
in the barometer, may be expected to last but a short time. 

5. When the barometer alters slowly, a long succession of 
foul weather will succeed if the column falls, or of fair weather 
if the column rises. 

6. A fluctuating and unsettled state in the mercurial column 
indicates changeable weather. 

In these rules, the " index of the aneroid " may take the 
place of " the mercury column." 

Prof. Silliman called to witness the experience of Mr. Jos. 
Lesley, Jr., of Phila., one of the class who had, as a topographi- 
cal engineer, made great use of the anei"oid as a levelling 
instrument. This gentleman stated that he had used this 
instrument during the Avhole season in determining contour 
lines over hundreds of miles of broken country, and had found, 
on calculating his lines at the end of the season, the differences 
quite inconsiderable. He was disposed to rank the aneroid, as 
an instrument for scientific uses, higher than Prof Silliman had 
placed it, but stated it was important to apply always a cor- 
rection for temperature — a sort of " personal equation," varying 
for each instrument. 

Prof Silliman concluded by quoting still farther some of the 
general conclusions of Prof. Henry, Prof Coffin, Mr. Espy, 
and others, as embodied in the Agricultural Reports of the 
Patent Office and of the Smithsonian Institution. He strongly 
advised the class to study the articles on meteorology, contain- 
ed in the documents for the years 18.56 to 1860, as being far 
the most reliable of anything hitherto within the reach of the 
general reader. 

In the evening there was delivered a lecture by Cassius M. 
Clay, on stock and stock-breeding, 

Mr, Clay's first lecture was given in the Baptist church, 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 157 

to an audience of several hundred persons. He commenced 
by stating that he had come here as a progressive former, to 
lend his aid and influence to a movement which he deemed of 
great importance, and the necessity for which he had for 
years appreciated. We hear it said on every hand, and 
especially by politicians, that farming is a i-espectable business ; 
but he thought that no amount of honeyed phrases or plausible 
talk would make any calling respectable. Agriculturists were 
ahead of most others in moral and physical developments. If 
farmers would be really respected, they must refine and culti- 
vate themselves into respectability, and not wait for it to be 
done by others. They must carry their capital into the 
country, and use it judiciously in advancing their farm practice. 
Taste should be cultivated ; and rural architecture, landscape 
gardening, and other things which render a country attractive, 
should especially be fostered. To further this great object 
this Convention had been called, thanks to the sagacity and 
enterprise of Prof. Porter ; and although it would have been 
perhaps more convenient to him (Mr. Clay) if it had held its 
session in Kentucky, yet, it being in Connecticut, he was will- 
ing to come hither, for what tended to promote the advance- 
ment of New England farming was as dear to his heart as if 
it were especially pointed at Kentucky interests. It is the 
sheerest madness for farmers to drain the heart of their firms 
and invest their funds in stocks and bonds, for the application of 
capital to farm improvements would give as large comparative 
profit as it would in any other business. The introduction of 
better classes of farm stock, Mr. Allen had told us, would add 
from forty to sixty millions of dollars annually to our wealth. If 
we took this sum for a few years and applied it to farm improve- 
ment, what magnificent results would be attained! Through 
the interior of Kentucky the f irmers were so sensible of the 
profit derivable from improved stock, that they would no 
longer purchase common scrubs at any price, nor even give 
them standing room on their farms. For they had found, and 



1^ YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

Others would find, th.'it to purchase them at any price was ia 
the long run poor economy. 

He would not attempt to describe all the multitarious breeds 
of cattle in the civilized world, but would confine his remarks 
to the five leading British breeds — the Alderney or Jersey, 
the Ayrshire, the Devon, the Hereford, and the Shorthorn, 
In siz(^ and weight tlie Alderney is the smallest ; it is su])posed 
to have come from Normandy, but has been improved in the 
Channel Islands, and is greatly superior to what it formerly 
was. It is a picturesque-looking animal in appearance, rather 
than a strictly beautiful one. Those which he had seen were 
mostly ewe-necked, sway-backed, high in the withers, full 
bellied, and narrow in the girth. But he understood that by 
skilful breeding there had been many individuals of the breed 
made up to a symmetry and development quite creditable. 
The Alderney, he conceded, gives the richest of all milks, but 
little in quantity. Taken to the country, it was an active 
animal, cai)able of getting a living on scanty pastures. It will 
thrive in some degree almost anywhere with us, but undoubt- 
edly does best in districts which are the same isothermally as 
its native land. 

The Devous are supposed to have been brought to England 
with the Celts, and are, perhaps, rightly regarded as the oldest 
breed of the British Isles. They are mostly a dark red, with 
close, fine curly hair. They are a degree larger than the 
Alderney, are heavy in the head and horn, do not carry out 
the rump well, but are a very good animal withal. They give 
rather more milk than the Alderney, and of almost as rich a 
quality. They are not very heavy in the brisket, and, being 
narrow between the shoulders, are enabled to move briskly, 
and are thus adapted to working under the yoke, although 
rather light for heavy draft — and hence they have been improv- 
ed by a cross of the Shorthorn for oxen. The Longhorns 
have been tried in Kentucky, but abandoned, for they did not 
prove either famous milkers or feeders. The Devon is too 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 159 

small for Kentucky, and for other districts like it where there 
is abundance of heavy, rich pasturage. They do not aim at 
getting single famous milkers in his State, for they keep many 
animals, and a little milk from several is fully adequate to their 
purpose, beef being the great end. 

The Hereford he does not deem an original breed, for they 
were formerly of a dun and dark color, and are now white faced 
and throated ; a peculiarity which he thought owing to a cross 
with the Glamorgans, and not the Somersets. Theii* greatest 
inferiority was that they were miserable milkers ; a very bad 
fault, for there are doubtless a thousand persons who wish a 
milking animal to one who wants to make beef. The Hereford, 
as compared with the Shorthorn, is coarser in the shoulder and 
thicker in the hide, beside Avanting that general symmetry 
which characterizes their great rivals. A good handling qual- 
ity of hide is highly prized by the butcher, for a mellow, spongy 
skin indicates a good quality of beef, and that well "marbled." 
In this important feature he had found the Hereford deficient. 
He was aware that this breed is a favorite with butchers, but 
thought it greatly due to the fact that it lays on its fat in 
patches on the inside of the carcass, and thus goes in the " fifth 
quarter" as the butcher's perquisite. 

The Shorthorn he deems an original, and not, as popularly 
supposed, a created breed. They vary much, it is true, in 
color, but these variations are Avell defined, and evermore re- 
peated. He had never seen a real Shorthorn without some 
patch of white on it. The physiognomy of the race is the same 
as in olden times ; a fact which he thought demonstrated in their 
resemblance at this day to the outline of an old Shorthorn 
cow sculptured centuries ago upon a marble slab in an old 
church at Durham. The Shorthorn has not only perfection 
of form, but size, fattening pi'operties, and milking qualities 
as well. In England, Scotland, and this country, any dairy 
which is famous will generally be composed of Shorthorns, 
either thoroughbi'ed or grades. We may breed out the milk- 



luO YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

ing quality, but we may ou tlie other hand develop it to a great 
extent by careiul breeding from milkmg families. He has had 
an animal give thirty-two quarts of milk daily ; — the Shakers 
of Kentucky report one giving forty quarts a day — and he be- 
lieved the breed will make more butter and cheese than any 
other. In early maturity they are unrivalled. At two years 
old they have been sent from Kentucky to the New York market 
in prime condition, though three and upwards is the usual age. 

He Avas not of those who admitted that the improved Short- 
horn family had been created by Charles and Robert Colling, 
for Colling himself admitted that he had bought fine animals 
wherever he could find them before he began to breed for him- 
self, and Phcenix and Lady Maynard were as fine animals as he 
ever bred. He had bred judiciously, and improved the breed 
in extent, but its origin must be sought prior to the days of 
Charles Colling's Hubback. Perhaps it may not be advisable 
to use them in New England to the exclusion of other cattle ; 
but throughout the whole interior of this country, where the 
climate is fair and the pasturage good, they would, as they had 
in Kentucky already, run out any other of the leading breeds 
which might be placed in competition with them. 

The Ayrshire is essentially a modern breed. At least there 
was no such breed famous in Ayr a hundred years ago ; and he 
was of the impression that it had originated in a cross of the 
Shorthorn with the "West Highlanders. It has many of the 
characteristics of the Shorthorn ; is, next to it, the heaviest 
feeder ; and its great milking properties he thinks due to that 
part of its parentage. Carried to poorer pastures in England 
and elsewhere, the Ayrshire does not thrive as well as on its 
native fields. Some j^ublic-spirited farmers in Kentucky have 
recently imported some of the breed, and will give it another 
fair trial ; but Mr. Clay believes the same unfavorable result 
will follow as has heretofore. 

Mr. Clay claimed that his favorite breed pbssessed all the 
essential points of true beauty. Beauty, he thought, was com- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 161 

lDOS(,'d of five elements. 1st, Propriety : that is, the adaptation 
of means to an end. The full impression of beauty is never con- 
veyed to the cultivated mind if the eye is shocked at seeing an 
unsuitableness of form to the purpose in view, 2d, The ellip- 
tical line, or the oval. We make our picture-frames oval be- 
cause that is the most beautiful shape, and so do we our plats 
of grass and the leading features of a landscape garden, while 
the female face is never absolutely faultless unless it presents 
the oval form when viewed in front. The Greeks made the 
face oval in the Venus, but fuller in the forehead in the Miner- 
va and Jupiter. 3d, Color. The brightest gems are the best, 
and the greatest luxuriance of tints is lavished by nature, 
where she makes her loveliest handiwork. 4th, Smoothness of 
surface. The angular form is not admissible in a connection 
with the beautiful ; and roughness is merely angularity infinite- 
ly multiplied. 5th, Proportion, or the harmonious arrange- 
ment of parts. All these qualities he thought combined in the 
perfected Shorthorn of our time ; and we are bound to respect 
the beautiful, for we spend at least ten times as much for it as 
we do for the purely utilitarian. 

Mr. Clay illustrated his remarks with the aid of a large paint- 
ed sketch of one of his Shorthorn cows, which was suspended 
at the back of the platform. He was loudly applauded on 
resuming his seat, as also was the announcement by Prof. Por- 
ter that the second lecture would be given to-morrow morn- 
ing. 

Mr. Clay being limited to one hour and a quarter, by agree- 
ment with other lecturers, did not go as fully into the descrip- 
tion of the several breeds as he had desired. 



162 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



TWENTIETH DAY. -Feb. 23, I860. 

To-day two lectures on stock-breeding were given, one by 
Mr. Allen, the other by Cassius M. Clay. There was no 
great diversity of opinion between the two breeders as to the 
broad, fundamental laws of the art; so that while I am debarred 
from giving sketches of both lectures, their substance can be 
as well condensed into one. 

Mr. Allen read a letter from Mr. John T. Norton, the famous 
Jersey breeder, of Farmington, Ct., which embodies so much 
valuable information, that I cannot refrain from publishing it 
in this connection. Mr, Norton says: 

"The pure Alderney cattle come mostly from the Island of 
Jersey, in the British Channel, where they have been kept free 
from mixture for a hundred years, — no other breeds being al- 
lowed on the island. Similar cattle are found on the other 
Channel Islands; but all more or less mixed Avith other breeds. 
About two thousand head of cows and heifers are annually 
sold from the island, the area of which is not much greater 
than that of one of our largest New England towns, at an aver- 
age of £5 sterling each, making £100,000 sterling, or $500,000, 
from this source alone. 

"The Alderney cows are small and thin, with delicate deer- 
like limbs — generally light yellow or fawn color — always poor 
in flesh when in milk, but taking fat readily when dry. They 
are remarkable for gentleness and docility — easily kept, and 
usually give milk nearly up to the time of calving. 

"The important question in relation to these cows is their 
value compared with other breeds. It will be conceded at once 
that for fattening^ for labor, and ^oy furnishing milk for sale., 
they are inferior to almost all other breeds. 

"In Great Britain they are kept mostly by the wealthy, to 
supply their own tables with milk, cream, and butter. Colmaa 
says: 'Every nobleman and large land-owner keeps one or more 
tethered on his lawn, for family use.' They are also kept by 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 163 

many London dairymen in the proportion of one Alderney to 
ten other cows, to color the milk for market. 

"My own experience, after many years, has led me to the 
conclusion that for butter-making they are superior to any 
others, yielding more in quantity and of better quality. 

"In all other breeds, and also among grades, superior milkers 
and butter-makers may be found, equalling in quality of but- 
ter, and giving more milk, and producing more butter, than 
most Alderneys. But there is no other breed knovvm here that 
can always be relied on. I have never known an Alderney 
cow whose milk and butter had not the characteristics of the 
breed. They differ, as do others, in quantity, and somewhat 
in quality; but the peculiar color and quality are manifest in 
all. 

"The daily yield of milk of each cow, during their best milking 
period, varies from six to twelve quarts. This milk will make 
about one pound of butter to six (piarts of milk. One pound 
from twelve quarts is not far from the average yield from other 
breeds. 

. 'The average product of butter from my cows in 1859, Avas 
a fraction over two hundred pounds each. The average pro- 
duct of the dairies of the State of New York, I think, is about 
one hundred and twenty pounds to each cow. 

"The premiums by the New York State Society for the 
greatest product, have been given to dairies producing about 
one hundred and eighty pounds each cow. 

"My cows have had no extra feed. In summer they are 
kept on grass only. In winter they have one feed daily of cut 
corn-stalks, straA\', or coarse hay, with a slight sprinkling of 
bran, or cotton-seed meal, and two feeds of dry hay. 

"The average price for which my butter sold in 1S59, was 
thirty-five cents. The price now is forty cents. In March 
and April, it is to be forty-three cents, by contract, in Boston. 

"In relation to any improvement in the stock, I am of the 
opinion that none can be made by crossing with any known 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

breed. Increase in size, or an increased disposition to fatten, 
Avill be gained only at the expense of a loss in cream and btitter. 
"An analysis of numerous specimens of milk made m 1858 by 
Dr. S. R. Percy, under the direction of the New York Acade- 
my of Medicine, resulted as follows, viz. : The milk from six 
of my Alderneys, taken indiscriminately, exhibited butter com- 
pared with the best other milk, as seventy-two to forty-seven, 
and compared with tnixed country milk, as seventy-two to 

forty. 

"I am yours, very respectfully, 

"JOHN T. NORTON." 

Ml'. Clay commenced his second lecture on Cattle Breed- 
ing by pointing out, on tlie large sketch of a cow, the several 
good and bad points of the improved Shorthorn. There should 
be no surplus meat about the head, for it is all waste, or nearly 
so, and it consumes a quantity of food in being created which 
might be more profitably employed, A large dewlap, being 
poor for meat, and the skin inferior for leather, and a useless 
deformity, should be avoided. A straight s])ine indicates a state 
of health, as well as fine beef. Whenever an animal is too closely 
bred, or suffers in health, the spine droops, and the animal is call- 
ed "sway-backed." The girth should be as large as possible, for 
just under and behind the shoulders are located the vital parts 
— the heart, lungs, &c., and ample space should be given to 
them for full development. Without this there can never be 
the perfection of vigorous growth and hardiness of constitu- 
tion. The ribs should be joined to tlTfe s^tine at, or near, a 
right angle, should spring well outward, and drop well down 
toward the belly, — that there may be capaciousness of carcass 
to hold the viscera and food. The rump should be long to 
hold tine meat, and a long stretch from hip-bone to hock is nec- 
essary to give powerful leverage to working-oxen. A large 
brisket, projecting forward, and dropping below the line of the 
belly, he does not like, but rather aims at getting one of medi- 



TALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 165 

urn size, which indicates a strong constitution. A too large 
one is a deformity, a too small one a sign of weakness ; it is 
but a wall for the chest. When too large, it forces the animal 
to turn slowly, like a long ship, and makes rapid motion diffi- 
cult. Breadth of chest is to be sought after, for manifest rea- 
sons. The flank should drop well down, not so much for the 
profit it gives as to preserve a general symmetry of form. The 
beast should be well ribbed back. That is to say, there should 
be little space between the last of the short ribs and the hip- 
bone. If an animal is too long in body, it is apt to sway, or 
sink in the back, on the same principle as a long rope stretched 
from two points sinks at the centre. The feet and legs should 
be small, though not weak. The shin-bones make fine soup. 
In Kentucky, they esteem as peculiarly delicious a part which 
we throw away, viz., the feet. They first parboil them until 
well cooked, when the hoofs come ofi". They are cooled, and 
then rcboiled, and before being served up, cream is added, with 
chopped onions, and some pepper and s^lt. Mr. Clay said he 
would travel further to get a dish of feet than a bowl of green 
turtle soup. I think we had better get our wives to tiy it. 

The loin should be broad and full — here is the prime beef. 
The tail set on a level with the back, and large — falling from 
Avell back, and tapering to the joint. The perfection of girth, 
therefore, in an animal is the perfect circle, filling up the crops 
well. 

Twenty-eight years ago Mr. Clay began breeding Shorthorns, 
and imported the first thoroughbred into Madison county, Ken- 
tucky. He Avas a candidate for the Legislature at the time, 
and thinks he lost many hundred votes because he dared to 
pay $100 for a blooded bull. His neighbors thought it better 
to send him to a lunatic asylum than to the Legislature. Things 
are changed now. These very men come to him and pay some- 
times 1300 for a single animal. In former and more prosperous 
times he has had 500 or more animals feeding on his farm at 
once, and has handled as many as a thousand head in a year. 



im YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

His herd is now small, but choice ; for he has sold tlie poorer 
Jinimals and kept none but the best. He breeds from the stock 
of 1817, and later brous^ht, and holds his own with the owners 
of recently imported animals. 

Breeding as an Art. — In breeding, wc cannot be too strongly 
impressed with the fact that like produces like. Does a man 
gather grapes from thoi'ns, or figs from thistles? We should 
regard purity of blood, choosing our breeding-animals from a 
family in which there has been a succession of animals of the 
same type. If we use a grade bull we are never sure but that 
the calf will take on the type of some one of the worst of his 
ancestors. Climate, soil, and food, have a great eifect on the 
physical development of both men and animals, A genial cli- 
mate and abundance of food make beautiful and healthy ani- 
mals, and the magnificent Shorthorn doubtless owes it suprem- 
acy to the fact that it had both of these aids in the valley of 
the Tees. 

We should strive to breed so that the defects of one parent 
may be counterbalanced by the points of the other. If the 
dam is inferior in girth, the sire should be fine there ; if the one 
be too long in body, the other should be rather short. We 
should never cross animals of very great dissimilarity of devel- 
opment, however, lest the defect be thereby unreached, nor 
should such diverse breeds ns the Alderney and Shorthorn 
be mingled. Mr. Clay is a decided o])poiient to the practice 
of " in-and-in" breeding, basing his objections on what he deems 
adequate experience and observation. In his opinion it is as 
wrong to breed closely with animals, as for cousins and other 
near relatives to intermarry, liakewell, of Dishley, England, 
proved that fully. He gathered the best specimens of sheep 
and Longhorns, and bred them up to good specimens — making 
the Leicester into the improved Dishleys, and very superior 
Longhorns. But by " in-and-in," or close breeding, the stock 
ran down. The Bakowells, or Dishleys, had to invigorate 
with new crosses, and the Longhorns, being at best a poor 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 167 

breed, have gone to notliing ! He referred his audience to a 
full discussion of the subject of " in-and-in" breeding, between 
himself and others, in the American Agriculturist for 1859, 

As a general rule the female should be comparatively larger 
than the male, Mr, C, had found it very hard for scrub cows 
to be delivered of the foetus by a large Shorthorn bull. A 
large coarse bull is especially to be avoided. 

The Avhole art of feeding might be summed up in the remark, 
that the animal should never recede in flesh till mature, but be 
kept in good growing order always ; never too fat nor too lean. 
That is the way to have perfection of form — other things being 
equal. When animals are grown it is not so important to keep 
them always in good flesh ; although he has known show ani- 
mals, once too fat, ruined in health by getting too poor ! Too 
much fat Avill destroy the breeding power in male and female 
frequently. In Kentucky they are fast rivalling, if not excel- 
ling, England. Because, by the system of open stables and 
out-door exercise, the laws of health are better observed. 
The animals in England kept too much in stables and fed on 
heating food like oil-cake, have to be rowelled, bled, and 
purged ! Of course we Avho follow nature's law, need none of 
that ; and will ultimately beat them in perfection of form, &c. 
With us, in Kentucky, there is none of that degeneration of 
animals imported, which is so often talked of in the North ; 
because we keep up the favorable surroundings and means of 
progress. 

The Shorthorns will conceive at under four months. But 
Mr, Clay prefers to have them 2 years old before they are im- 
pregnated. If they calve younger they should be fed highly, — 
for, if they are not, the foetus takes up so much of the nutri- 
ment, that the mother is stinted in food for necessary assimila- 
tion, and becomes stunted and ill-formed. Possibly early breed- 
ing may rather more favor the milking quality ; but his expe- 
rience is not sufficient to accede without further proofs to this 
general idea. 



168 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

All breeds for permanent breeders should be thoroughbred. 
The Shorthorn brings up tlie native cattle wonderfully, — but 
they should be bred all the tirae to a thoroughbred bull, and 
the grades should not be bred, if it can be avoided, to any 
other bull. This way will bring a herd up wonderfully by the 
simple outlay for a good bull. 

With regard to color: within the bounds which mark a 
breed, he knows no utilitarian color. The Shorthorns combine 
red and white in all proportions ; but no other color, except 
yellow, is admissible. Red is just now the favorite color. 
Roan was once, and may be again. White winters and fattens 
as well in Kentucky as any other color. Some of the finest 
bullocks ever sent to the New York market were grazed by 
him, and were whites. The finest and best fatted heifer he 
ever saw was descended from the 1817 stock of Shorthorns, 
and was white — weighing over two thousand pounds! 

Mr. Clay did not believe the doctrine that the features of the 
first sire were impressed to some extent upon all succeeding 
foetuses. He thought that idea had been originated by the 
women ! Mr. Clay thought we were in the infancy of the art 
of breeding — full of uncertainty now ; yet the laws of breed- 
ing were as fixed as the laws of Physics. All we wanted was 
knowledge. We knew no way at present of influencing the 
sex — though ho thought the most vigorous animal influenced 
the sex. He thought, if an old bull went to many cows, the 
calves would be heifers mostly; — but if a young bull went to a 
few and rather old cows, the result would be malcS; We 
needed more intelligence and more close observation. The 
course of higher progress was in such efibrts as those now here 
making. Let our motto be — Excelsior ! 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 169 



TWENTY-FIRST DAY.— Feb. 24, 1860. 

According to the pre-jirraiioed schedule, Ave should have had 
a lecture from Mr, Donald G. Mitchell (Ik Marvel), on 
Rural Economy, and two from Ambrose Stevens, on Horses ; 
but Mr. Mitchell excused himself on the ground that his sub- 
ject had, in great degree, been anticipated in preceding lec- 
tures, and owing to some fault in the mails, or otherwise. Prof. 
Porter's letters and telegraphic dispatclies failed to reach Mr. 
Stevens. We have been in both cases disappointed ; for there 
is no such graceful pen as Ik Marvel's enlisted in the cause of 
agriculture, and Mr. Stevens is regarded as one of the best- 
informed and scholarly of our horse and cattle breeders. 

Mi-, Mason C. Weld, a pupil of Liebig's, and now one of the 
editors of The Homestead^ gave us last evening a sensible lec- 
ture on Agricultural Associations. 

After remarking upon the general benefits of association 
among farmers — the proposition being maintained that in pro- 
portion to the degree of enlightenment attained, is the readi- 
ness of individuals to communicate their knowledge and expe- 
rience for the benefit of others— Mr. Weld took up, sejDarately, 
the various kinds of oiganizations sustained for mutual benefit 
among farmers. Cattle insurance companies, on the mutual 
plan, were passed Avith simply calling attention to them as 
having a very beneficial eflfect in necessitating accurate veteri- 
nary knowledge and practice, and the humane treatment of 
poor, ailing beasts, instead of the barbarities now too often 
practised. Agricultural associations Avei'e treated under the 
following titles: Temporary Farmers' Clubs, Permanent Far- 
mers' Clubs, Town Clubs; County, State, and National Agri- 
cultural Societies. 

The Temporary Farmers' Clubs are simply meetings of far- 
mers — e. g., those attending a fair, or members of a State Leg- 
islature — who assemble, appoint a chairman, and talk agricul- 
8 



AfTO YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

ture. The requisites to success are — 1st, short speeches; 2d, 
an active, prompt chairman. 

The Farmers' Chib proper, is an organization — the simpler 
the better — of tlie farmers of a neighborhood. It was advised 
to have, in general, no regular constitution, but a few simple 
rules instead ; to elect a presiding officer at every meeting, but 
to have a permanent secretary, with extraordinary powers, 
appointed annually. The primary object of the farmers' clubs 
is, to promote, in evei'y feasible way, the improvement of the 
agriculture of the district. This is accomplished by making 
common stock of the knowledge possessed by each member ; 
collecting statistics ; keeping a record of extraordinary events ; 
distributing seeds and grafts ; testing implements ; aiding each 
other by counsel ; maintaining regular meetings ; a library, &c. 

A plan for breaking up the boys' debating-society system, 
which such clubs are apt to fall into, to the disgust of good 
farmers, and the ultimate discontinuance of the clubs, was pre- 
faced as follows : Suppose the clubs to represent fairly the best 
farmers of their districts, and to meet all of them (that is, all 
of the State or county) upon the same day, about the first of 
each month. A set of questions for each month in the year 
being set forth by the central State association, each farmer 
may answer each question as concerns his own farm ; and as 
the questions should be carefully prepared with a view to de- 
velop the most important facts and statistics, a summary of the 
answers of all will give a view of the position of the town, 
prospectively and retrospectively, as regards its products seek- 
ing a market; sales and purchases ; crop prospects and results 
of harvests ; increase of stock ; diseases among domestic animals ; 
prevalence of disease among crops ; insect ravages, &c. The 
plan is, that these monthly statistics should be placed on file; 
a summary sent to the secretary of the county, or State socie- 
ty, as soon as possible, in order that the more important facts, 
affecting the market, may be made j^ublic, while all should be 
kept on file at one place or the other, for reference and inves- 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 171 

ligation. The object to be gained is the personal interest of 
members in the cUib, and especially of all good tarrners, and 
the full accomplishment of the legitimate ends of the associa- 
tion. The Farmers' Club was held to be the most important 
means of educating a class of energetic and intelligent farmers, 
to whom may be intrusted the affiiirs of the State and County 
Agricultural Societies. 

The County Society should be made np of the Farmers' 
Clubs, and the two classes of organizations should work harmo- 
niously together, each doing its own work. A more definite 
organization is needed — officers elected for one year at least, 
a vice-president, or director, being chosen from each town by 
the Farmers' Club of the town. The fairs were shown to be 
a chief means of carrying forward the objects of these societies, 
and also the great desirableness of, and the great difficulty of 
securing the services of fair, honorable, intelligent, reasonable 
men to act as Awarding Committees. The cure for the state of 
things now commonly existing lies in first offering fewer pre- 
miums, and increasing their value ; second, allowing no discre- 
tionary premiums, or gratuities, to be given in classes in which 
regular prizes are offered ; third, insisting that the award shall 
represent the accurate estimation of the committee of the 
worthiness of the animal, or article, without regard to the en- 
couragement or reward of the owner for making the exhibition ; 
fourth, throwing the whole of the responsibility of making a cor- 
rect judgment upon the committee, and securing the fairest and 
best men. Offeiing prizes for articles of no agricultural use 
or importance, as well as making balloon shows, ladies' riding- 
matches, &c., were condemned as undignified and unwoithy of 
an Agricultural Association. 

State Societies should — as most do — depend upon the county 
organizations, as these in turn do upon the clubs; and their 
management is much the same — only upon a larger scale. Mu- 
seums of all things of an agricultural bearing, implements, 
grasses and grains, seeds, models, <fec., and libraries of home 



If2 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

and foreign journals and books of i-eference, were advocated, 
as well as the practical use of interchanges of seeds, grafts, &c., 
through the medium of this mutual dependence of the societies 
and clubs one upon another. 

In conclusion, the lecturer advocated strongly the establish- 
ment at once of an experimental farm, in connection with a 
thoroughly furnished laboratory, referi'ing to the debt the world 
owes Lawes and Gilbert for their experiments at Rothampstead, 
and to the most weighty results developed by the investiga- 
tions in France and Germany, which latter country has now in 
operation more than forty experiment stations under the man- 
agement of competent men of science in connection with prac- 
tical f irmers. 

The convention assembled at 9 o'clock this morning, and 
listened to a lecture upon the methods in use for " Breaking 
and training horses," by Dr. Daniel F. Gulliver, of Norwich. 
The introductory part of his lecture was spent mainly in de- 
scribing the characteristics of horses as distinct from other 
breeds of animals. Their high spirit, great intelligence, and 
susceptibility to fear as well as kindness, render them a proper 
companion for man. Upon these principles in his nature do the 
principles of training depend. The systems of Baucher and 
Rarey only will be discussed. The former is easy and extreme- 
ly simple, even almost stupid when considered in its several 
parts, yet as a whole it is eminently successful. It was first in- 
troduced into this country in 1851, at Philadelphia. It is very 
popular in France, so much so that in the eight years from '41 
to '49, nine editions were sold of that work. It should be owned 
by every man that owns a horse. This system is designed 
principally to finish the horse for the saddle ; but its principles 
are applicable to all classes of horses, excepting those intended 
for heavy draught. Mr. Seth Craige, of Philadelphia, who has 
used this method even from the proof sheets, whence he learn- 
ed it, says a horse fitted for the saddle makes the best harness 
horse, and this is the system for developing speed and harmony 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. l73 

of action. The animal is well balanceil, and so trots better be- 
cause all its movements are reg-nlar. Everything is graceful, 
and all the forces of the system assist each other. Herbert 
says a horse has greater docility, as well as better style and ac- 
tion, if it be thoroughly trained in the saddle before being put 
into the harness. The improvement is proportioned to the ex- 
tent and degree of supplying more or less. To break properly, we 
should seek out sources of resistance to graceful motion, whether 
from the physical nature, or from a previous imperfect motion. 
All the resistances we should overcome by a progressive sys- 
tem of sujjpling, applied successively to the principal muscles 
from the head to the haunches. The work is generally badly 
begun, and bad habits are produced. The term force, as we use it, 
is muscular power in action. The forces of the horse are subjec- 
ted to control by giving to the body a new balance, wdiere all the 
instinctive forces are changed to transmitted. Forces are 
termed instinctive, when the horse determines the use of them ; 
transmitted, when the man determines the use of them. Any 
man who has a modicum of " horse" in his disposition, may go 
through the supplings with his beast and break him M^ell, but 
it is a gradual process. The forces should be first conquered, 
and finally studied so as properly to direct them. The animal 
should be taught the exercise of the forces of balance and mo- 
tion. The focus of these forces is the centre of gravity of the 
animal, Avhile at rest or in motion. The various technical steps 
in this process were gone through with in detailed description 
by Dr. G., commencing from the head and jiassing along back- 
ward. The muscles controlling the action of the animal are to be 
subdued individually. Direct and indirect flexion of the jaw 
and of those muscles which join the head to the neck, is cal- 
culated to aid his intelligence, and thus secures, more satisfac- 
torily, what the bitting harness is designed to accomplish. 
The very use of training is to supple the horse to the hand ; 
hence, what need of machinery ? The neck and head are the 
two props upon which the horse relies to resist efforts to break 



174 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES, 

him. The whi]? should seldom be used as a punishment, but 
when it is, let it be done energetically and suddenly, to frighten 
the horse and intimidate him, rather than by being passionate 
and furious, to make him angry. There is great advantage in 
removing the support before shifting the weight. And an ani- 
mal must be taught to lift his foot before thro\\ing the weight 
in the direction he wishes to move. Whatever is possible with 
a horse, Baucher's system makes attainable, and this by the 
easiest means. The action of wild horses is perfect, but when 
domesticated, chained to a stable, holding sharp bits, (of Avhich 
forty kinds were lately on exhibition in Philadelphia,) the native 
grace is lost ; but all the high capabilities remain, and are seen 
ill the common horse, when developed by the supplings of 
Baucher. " What is gracefully done is easily done," is a 
maxim as applicable here as elsewhere. The horse of the pres- 
ent day wears out too soon because its education is forgotten, 
and it is treated like a machine. Proper breaking and training 
would add 30, GO, and in special cases even 100 per cent, to 
the value of horses. Not one in a hundred, Herbert tells us, or 
even in a thousand in the United States, was ever properly 
broken, and not one in fifty has the proper rudiments of an edu- 
cation. In ten years the demand for saddle horses will be in- 
creased in a twelve-fold ratio. The foolish desire of the com- 
munity is for speed. If a horse is not fast, he is good for noth- 
ing. The high prices these fast horses bring would be a for- 
tune to some of the farmers. But they forget how many inter- 
mediate hands these prices pay. Most farmers try to breed 
something fast (tempted by the fabulous price, or because 
their neighbors do) ; thus the whole community is involved, 
and the market glutted with a class of horses, which if they 
f lil in speed are fit for nothing else. This j^rocess is the best 
to develop the animal, but it must be progressively and care- 
fully applied. Such is Baucher^ effectual means to annul and 
equalize all resistances. Rarey's method is applicable to all 
horses, of all ages, but to those especially who have never been 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 175 

hanfllecT at all, or have been badly handled. It consists in lay- 
ing the horse flat upon the ground, by simple and easy means, 
though in extreme cases the terrible process of choking is 
resorted to. In 18.j8, the New York Tribune gave a compen- 
dium of it. The nigh fore leg is to be bent at the knee, and 
Uie hoof strapped to the leg. A long strap is fastened low on 
the off" fore leg. Thus we have the horse on three legs and 
under control. After two or three throws he becomes entirely 
submissive, and no act of kindness is thereafter lost upon him. 
Affection to his master, personally, is the great result of the 
llarey method. This throwing need not injure the animal, 
since it may be done with some soft material under foot, or the 
knees be protected by pads ; moreover, the posture is one the 
horse assumes voluntarily whenever he wishes to lie down. In 
a herd of native horses, social position is determined by the 
varying degree of muscular force, and if so overcome by man, 
he Avill be convinced he is his superior and yield. If you go so 
far, you have now a pupil which will learn anything. But be 
patient, even-tempered, not hasty, and never angry, Rarey 
says anger and fear should not be known to trainers. Ask 
nothing that you do not want, and then always have it per- 
formed. 

At the close of the lecture, Wra. Whittlesey, of New 
Britain, was called to the chair, and several questions bearing 
on different points, were asked the lecturer, all of which he 
answered satisfactorily. 



THE COURSE CLOSED. 

New Haven, Feb. 25, 1860. 
After Mr. Mason C. Weld's lecture, as I yesterday stated, 
there followed an address by Professor Porter, and a sort of 
discussion upon the success of this plan of agricultural educa- 
tion. Professor Porter has modestly refrained from speech- 
making from the very commencement, and has stooped to none 



176 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 

of those tricks to make popularity wliich the engineers of less 
important enterprises often employ. He deemed it incumbent 
upon him, at the close of his course, to give a sketch of its 
inception, and show what reasons he had to believe its perma- 
nence secured. 

I shall make no report of his remarks, for in his preface to 
this volume he has stated his views at sufficient length, and 
much better than I could. 

The Professor having concluded his remarks, Mr. H. A. 
Dyer, Treasurer of the Connecticut Agricultural Society, was, 
on motion, elected Chairman of the meeting, and Mr. H. A. 
Pitkin, of Louisville, Ky., Secretary ; and an organization 
being thus effected. 

Dr. Wm. a. Townsend, of Lockport, F. Y., offered the fol 
lowing preamble and resolutions : 

Whereas, The Faculty of the Scientific School of Yale College have 
instituted a course of lectures, given by scientific and practical men, in 
relation to all the various departments of agriculture, combined with a 
system of discussion, questions and answers, statements and illustrations, 
we who have participated in these interesting exercises feel a desire to 
express to the agricultural community at large our views and opinions 
in regard to the same : therefore. 

Resolved, That we cordially and fully approve of this method of diffus- 
ing and disseminating agricultural information, and regard it as the 
opening of a new era, and presenting new facilities to all classes of agri- 
culturists in our country for obtaining correct and reliable information 
and knowledge, in relation to the cultivation of the soil, and therefore 
recommend this method to the candid consideration of all farmers and 
cultivators, of whatever age, position, and locality. 

Resolved, That in view of the success of this Convention, the gratitude 
of the agricultural community is due to Prof Joun A. Porter and his 
associates for the design so happily conceived, and his untiring efforts 
in carrying it out. 

Resolved, That we entertain the hope and express our earnest desire 
that this may prove the germ of a permanent institution, endowed with 
all needful facilities for illustration, which, as a department of the Yale 



YALE AGRICULTUllAL LECTURES. 177 

Scientific Sctiool, shall greatly promote the cause of Agriculture, and 
elevate the farmer to his true social and intellectual position. 

Resolved, That we hereby tender our warmest thanks to the citizens 
of New Haven, who have extended to us so many acts of kindness and 
hospitality during our sojourn here, and we beg them to be assured that 
the evidences of their generosity and goodness are duly appreciated and 
will long be remembered. 

These were unanimously adopted. 

Mr. M. L. HoLBROoK, of the Ohio Farmer, then offei-ed an 
additional one, as follows : 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be tendered to the 
lecturers, for the promptness of their response to the call, and for the 
very able and faithful manner in which they have conveyed both scien- 
tific and practical instruction. 

Mr. Lewis F, Allen said that he had had no doubts of the 
success of this plan from the very first, and he had come 500 
miles or more to show his disposition to aid the movement as 
much as lay in his power. The names of the lecturers were 
of themselves a guaranty of the value of the course, if Yale 
College had not lent its influence toward it. In his opinion, 
Yale College, with all her great achievements, had never done 
anything so great or important as in establishing this Agri- 
cultural Lecture system. 

Mr, fS. B. Parsons, of Long Island, thought that an experi- 
mental flirm would grow naturally from this movement, and 
if it did, and it were properly conducted, who could prophesy 
the national benefits which would result ? 

Mr. JuDD, of the Agi^icidtiirist, gave his unqualified approval 
of the matter, and promised the aid of his paper to the fullest 
extent possible. 

Prof. B. SiLLiMAN, Jr., said that when he saw all this enthusi- 
asm and good feeling he could not help recalling the by-gone 
days of 1846, '47 and '48, when the late John Pitkin Norton 
and himself had, after much trouble, obtained the recognition 
of an Agricultural Department from the College ofiicials. 
8* 



ITS YALE AGRICULTURAL LHCTUllES, 

How tremblingly they two had started on their work, with 
their little collection of aj)i»aratns ! Their first class of pupils 
was very small in number, but all its members had achieved 
honorable reputations. Their beginning, small as it was, was 
still due to the enlightened views and generous enthusiasm of 
Mr. John T. Norton, of Farmington, who contributed $5,000 
toward a fund to endow a Professorship of Agricultural 
Chemistry, and, since his son's untimely death, had allowed 
the income from that sum to remain for appropriations to the 
same end. 

The Chairman spoke feelingly to the memory of Norton, 
and foresaw for this department a flattering future. 

Other gentlemen expressed similar views, and, after a pleas- 
ant evening's discussion, the meeting adjourned, without day. 

It is not worth our while to indulge in lengthy comments 
upon the mode of conducting this course of lectures, nor upon 
the success which has crowned the labors of its managers ; but 
that the readers of this volume may know how truly national 
an interest had been excited in it, and for the sake of the 
future historian of Amei-ican agricultural education, I will state 
that there have been registered on the book about 3;")0 names. 
Of these persons, 172 only are from Connecticut, 23 from 
Massachusetts, 35 from New York, and the remainder is di- 
vided between Indiana, Kentucky, Vermont, Ohio, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Maine, Illinois, Florida, 
Wisconsin, Rhode Island, and the Canadas, East and West. 
Considering that in the Undergraduate Department of Yale 
there are only 502 students, the regular attendance of 
nearly or quite 350 at the agricultural lectures should be 
well w^eighed in the minds of the Faculty, and prompt 
them to not only give a tacit recognition, but, so far as 
(ionsistent with professional duties, take an active interest in 
the establishment of this department of agriculture. They 
may rest assured that, by so doing, they will make the name 
of Yale more respected in her old age than it -ever haw been 



YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 179 

in her palmiest days. When, some time ago, I wanted to take 
a course of agricultural instruction, I was forced to cross the 
ocean, because there was no suitable place at home. Thanks 
to Prof Porter, his associates, and the generous friends who 
have contributed their money to aid thera, others will not be 
put to the same straits. Within a few years from this time, 
Yale College will have, probably, as spacious apartments, as 
complete a museum, library and reading-room, and as well ap- 
pointed a laboratory as any student, however diligent, may 
require. And with this pleasing prospect in view, congratula- 
ting Profs. Porter and Johnson upon the success of their ex- 
periment, I close my note-book, and write among the things 
of the Past this first course of the Yale Agkicultural 
Lectures. 



APPENDIX. 



AN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT. 

Near the close of the Yale Agricultural Convention for 
1860, Professor Porter promised to issue a scheme for some 
simple and easily-conducted experiments, with the results of 
which the Couventiou might contribute new material to the 
practice and tlieory of rational agriculture. The business of 
preparing a plan of trials having been confided to the under- 
signed, he has deemed it best to select some fertilizer as the 
subject of experiment, and indeed, that substance which in 
our country is everywhere accessible and cheap, its use being 
unhampered by the burdensome imposts which still render it 
expensive in nearly all other countries. This substance is salt ; 
one which, furnishing indispensable ingredients to the digestive 
fluids, performs most important offices in the economy of the 
animal kingdom, and is, unquestionably, most naturally and 
healthfully derived from the food itself. 

SAMUEL W. JOHNSON". 

Ycde Scientific School, New Havm, Ct., March, 1860. 



EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE USE OF SALT AS A FERTILIZER. 

The action of salt as a fertilizer, has long been a matter of 
uncertainty and dispute among agriculturists. In many cases 
it has been reported to be extremely useful, in many morn to 
be entirely valueless, and in some positively disastrous. 

(181) 



182 APPENDIX. 

We have no reason to disbelieve the testimony that has been 
offered at various times, and from a wide range of experi- 
menters, although it is so contradictory in its character. 

If the various statements concerning the i;se of salt as a fer- 
tilizer are true, the important question arises, How ai'e we to 
know when it will be useful, and when otherwise ? 

Tliis question can only be answered by the repetition of ex- 
periments, which must be made under a great variety of cir- 
cumstances, and under conditions that are accurately known 
and defined. 

In conducting such an inquiry, it is of the first importance to 
gather from the existing stock of experience, all the facts which 
throw any light either upon the question itself, or upon the 
methods of investioatins; it. 

Under the conviction that a multitude of careful trials may 
be instituted among our farmers, with the prospect of explain- 
ing the contradictions of former experience, or at least of re- 
vealing the valuable fact that salt is ca})able of doing the agricul- 
turist great service in many localities where it has not yet been 
tried, and also of contributing to the education of the public 
in the objects and methods of experimental agriculture, we 
have drawn up from various sources the facts, assertions and 
probabilities which may serve as guides in attempting the solu- 
tion of this problem. 

1st. We know that the constituents of common salt (chlo- 
rine and sodium) are unfailing ingredients of all agricultural 
plants, although they exist in vegetation in very variable, usu- 
ally quite small amount. 

2d. We know that in many instances (perhaps in all where 
this subject has been accurately studied) the use of salt as a 
manure has increased (often doubled) the amount of salt in the 
crop. 

Sd. We know that crops having large foliage contain (and 
require ?) more salt than those of the small-leaved and few- 
leaved kinds. 



APPENDIX. 183 

4^A. It is said that tobacco is largely increased in quantity, 
but injured in quality, by applying suit as a manure. The same 
is said of sugar-plants. 

t:ith. It is probable that the white beet, mangel-wurzel, and 
carrot, among field-crops, (as is certain of asparagus in the gar- 
den, ) being oi'iginally marhie plants, will be more strikingly 
benefited by salt than other crops, and will admit of larger 
applications, other things being equal, 

(Sth. We know that many soils near saline springs, (or re- 
claimed from salt marshes,) naturally contain as much or more 
salt than is needful for the growth of agricultural plants. 

Ith. We know that in many regions (those exposed to pre- 
vailing and especially stormy Avinds from the ocean) the soil 
annually receives from spray and rain more salt than is annu- 
ally removed by crops. 

Qth. We know that salt is most often injurious in dry seasons, 
or on dry soils. 

^th. It is probable that the positively injurious effects of salt 
are chiefly due to its being applied in too large quantity ; for 

10th. We know that a strong solution of salt hinders the 
germination of seeds, and destroys the life of the growing 
plant (marine plants of course excepted). 

Wth. We know (from the recent experiments of Sachs and 
Knop in Saxony) that a weak solution of salt hinders (by one 
half or more) the transpiration of water through the plant; 
therefore, 

VMh. It is probable that a little salt has the effect to keep 
the soil more humid, and thus tends to counteract drought ; 
and, 

Vdth. It is probable that a little salt, by hindering excessive 
transpiration, (and too rapid growth ?) causes the cellular tissue 
of the plant to develop in a firmer, healthier manner than it 
might otherwise do; and thus maybe explained, 

lUh. The assertion that a bushel or two of salt per acre on 
grain crops prevents falling (laying or lodging) of the straw. 



184 APPENDIX. 

15th. It is, however, the experience of Girardin, Fauchet, 
and Dubreuil, that large doses (more than 370 lbs. per acre) 
increase the straw rather than the grain, and make the crop 
lodge on soil that has been dunged. 

16th. It is said that the small applications of salt make the 
straw of the grains brighter, and prevent rust. 

17th. It is said that large applications delay the ripening of 
the grain. 

18^A. It is said that salt prevents potato rot (by delaying the 
sprouting and blossoming of the plant, so that the critical pe- 
riod of its life is brought after the hot fogs and rains of late 
summer?). 

19th. We know, from many trials, (those of Kuhlmann, and 
recent ones of Liebig,) that salt often remarkably heightens the 
effect of other powerful manures. 

20th. We know (from the studies of "Way and Eichhorn) 
that salt is able to displace potash, ammonia, and lime from in- 
soluble combinations of these bodies, — combinations such as, 
in all probability, exist in tlie soil. Therefore, and because 

21st. We know that salt increases the power of water to 
dissolve the phosphates of lime, magnesia, &c., 

22c?. It is probable tliat its use may, on certain soils, be 
equivalent to an application of these bodies, by rendering the 
stores of them already existing in the soil available to crops. 

2Sd. It is probable that salt is sometimes advantageous, not 
so much as a fertilizer, as by destroying worms and the larvae 
of insects. 

24:th. It is certain that fields well manured with stable or 
yard manure, made from cattle that are supplied with all the 
salt they desire, thus receive more salt than is removed from 
them in ordinary culture. 

25th. It is probable that thorough-drained fields will be more 
benefited by (and require mor^ ?) salt, than undrained fields 
of similar soil, 

26^/4. It is a matter of experience, that while 500 to 600, or 



APPENDIX. 185 

even 800 lbs. of salt may be applied per acre befoi-e the seed, 
Avithout injury (in moist climate or wet season), not more than 
200 lbs. per acre should be put directly on the growing crop. 

Any one may easily select for himself from the foregoing 
some one or more points that it is desirable to test in his own 
locality, and will also readily gather the most important cir- 
cumstances that need to be regarded in carrying out an exper- 
iment to a good result. 

We add, however, the following suggestions as to the man- 
ner of making the experiment : 

I. Every experiment should furnish means of comparison 
with some standard. If, for example, it is sought to ascertain 
whether salt increases a crop on a given soil, not only should a 
portion of the crop and soil have salt applied to it, but another 
portion should be left without the ap^jlication. If the question 
is, Is the straw strengthened, or the grain made heavier? then, 
obviously, opportunity must be given to observe how strong 
the straw is, or how heavy the grain is where no salt has been 
used. 

II. The plots of ground should not usually consist in a sti'ip 
a few feet wide, or in a few rows of the crop, but in a nearly 
square surface, so as to have as little edrje to the piece as possi- 
ble, for the roots of plants often extend several feet beyond 
ordinary dividing lines, if the soil be grateful to them. 

lU. The experimental ground should be as uniform as possi- 
ble in quality of soil, in tillage, dunging, and exposure, and 
should all have had the same treatment as regards cropping 
and manuring for several years previous to the trial. 

IV. The plots should be of good size, at least one-eighth, 
preferably one-fourth of an acre. 

V. " Everything should be done by weight and measure ;" 
guesswork is worse than useless. Let the plots be accurately 
measured, not " paced off." Let the materials added, and the 
crop removed, be carefully weighed, and not " estimated by 
the eye." 



186 APPENDIX. 

VI. Every care should be used to observe and record, M'ith 
fulness and accuracy, the character, exposure, present condition 
and previous management of the soil. The climate and weather, 
the development of the crop in all its parts, and in all stages 
of its growth, and generally, all facts bearhig on the experi- 
ment, should be taken into the account. 



SCHEME OF EXPERIMENTS. 

A. General Effects of Salt, — as mcrease of pi'oduct, improve- 
ment of quality of crop, prevention of disease, &c. 

Two plots of any soil in any crop, — both may receive other 
manures or not ; but their treatment should diifer only in this 
flict, that one is salted, the other not. Use the salt at the rate 
of 350 lbs. per acre, (see 26th observation). 

B. Effect on particular crops, or classes of crops, as potatoes 
compai-ed with carrots, grasses vs. root-crops, root-crops vs. 
grains. 

Two plots for each crop as under A. 

C. Effects of cVffei'ent doses: 

Soil and crop alike, — one plot unsaltcd, one with 75 lbs, one 
with 150 lbs., one with 300 lbs., one with 450 lbs., or other 
different quantities, less or more in number, as convenient. 

D. Effects on dfferent soils : 

Soils different,— tillage, manure, and crop the same. Dose 
of salt the same. Of each soil a salted and an unsalted plot 
should be observed. 



IL 



"n.,.v. 3 1860. 



All the Books on this Catnlog^ie sent by Mail, to any part of the XJnion^ 

free of postage, upon receipt of Price. 

CATALOaUE OF BOOKS 

ON 

AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE, 

FUBLISHED BY 

C. M. SAXTON, BARKER & CO., 

No. 35 PARK ROW, IVEW IfORK. 

SUITABLE FOR 

SCHOOL, TOWN, AGRICULTURAL, & PRIVATE LIBRARIES. 



AMERICAN FARMER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA, ...... $4 00 

As A Book of Referexge for the Farmer or Gardener, this 

Work is siiporior to any other. It contains Reliable iQlbrraation for the Cultivation of 
ovory variety of KielJ and Garden Crops, the use of all kinds of Manures, descriptions 
au I figures of Amjrican insects ; and is, indeed, an Agricultural Library in itself, con- 
taiaiug twsloe hundred pages, octavo, and is illustrated by numerous engravings of 
(Jrassi^'s, Grains, Animals, Implements, Insects, &o. , k.c. By Gooverxecr Emerso.v op 
Pe.v.vsvlva.vu. 

AMERICAN WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS, ... - 1 50 

An Illustrated Edition of Agricultural Botany ; An Enu- 
meration and Description of Weeds and Useful Plants which merit the notice or 
require the attention of American Agriculturists. By Wm. D.irij.ngton, M. D. Re- 
vised, with Additions, by George Tucrbkr, Prof, of Mat. Med. and Botany in the New 
York College of Pharmacy. Illustrated with nearly 300 Figures, drawn expressly for 
this work. 

ALLEN'S (R. L.) AMERICAN FARM BOOK, 1 00 

Or a Compend op American Agriculture ; being a Practical 

Trealiso on Soils, Manures, Draining, Irrigation, Grasses, Grain, Roots, Fruits, Cotton, 
Tobacco, Sugar Cane, Rice, and every Staple Product of the United States ; with the 
best methods of Planting, Cultivating and Preparation for JIarket. Illustrated with more 
than 100 engravings. 

ALLEN'S (R. L.) DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS, . - 75 

Being a History and Description of the Horse, Mule, Cattle, 

Sheep, Swine, Poultry and Farm Dogs, with Directions for their Management, Breeding, 
Crossing, Rearing, Feeding, and Preparation for a I'rofitable Market ; also, their 
Diseases and Remedies, together with full Directions for the Management of the Dairy, 
and the comparative Economy and Advantages of Working Animals, — the Horse, Mule, 
Oxen, &c. 

ALLEN'S (L. F.) RURAL ARCHITECTURE, 1 25 

Being a Complete Description of Farm Houses, Cottages and 

Out Buildings, comprising Wood Houses, Workshops, Too! Houses, Carriage and Wagon 
Houses, Staliles, Smoke and Ash Houses, Ice Houses, Apiaries or Bee Houses, Poultry 
Houses, Rabbitry, Dovecote, Piggery, Barusj and Sheds for Cattle, &c., &c. ; together 
with Lawns, Pleasure Grounds and Parks ; the Flower, Fruit and Vegetable Garden ; 
also, the best method of conducting water into Cattle Yards and Houses. Beautifully 
illustrated. 

ALLEN (J. FISK) ON THE CULTURE OF THE GRAPE, . - 1 00 

A Practical Treatise on the Culture and Treatment op thk 

Grape Vine, embracing its History, with Directions for its Treatment in the United 
States of America, in tUo Open Air and under Glass Structures, with and without 
ir'iScial Heat 

Mailed post paid upon receipt qf price. 



a Books puhiis/ied hy C M. &AXTON, Barker & Co. 

ABDEEICAS AECHITECT, 6 00 

Comprising Okigix^vl Designs of Cheap Country and Villagb 

ResidciicL'S, Willi Dotal Is, Specifications, Plans and Directions, and an Estimate of the Cost 
of each Design. By Joh.v W. Ritch, Architect. First and Second Series, 4to, bound in 
1 vol. 

AMERICAN FLOBIST'S GUIDE, 76 

Comprising the American Rose Cultukist, and Every Lady 

bcr own Flower (iardi'uer. 

AEEY'S FEUIT GARDEN, 1 25 

A Treatise, Intended to Expl.un and Illustrate the Puysi- 

ology of Fruit Trops, the Tlioory and Practice of all Operations coiinected with llie 
Propagation, Transplanting, Pruning and Training of Oi'cbard and (Jarden Trees, aa 
Standards. Dwarfs, Pyramids, Espalier, &c. nie I«aying out and Arranging different 
kinds of Orchards and Gardens, the selection of suitable varieties for dilfereut purposes 
and localities, Gathering and Preserving Fruits, Treatment of Diseases, Destruction of 
Insects, Description ami Uses of Implements, &c. Illustrated with upwards of 160 
Figures. By P. Harry, oI' the Mount Hi]]ie Nurseries, Rochester, N. Y. 

BEMENT'S (C. N.) RABBIT FANCIER, 60 

A Treatise on the Brkkding, Re.vring, Feeding and G-eneral 

Management of Rabbits, with U'Muarks upon Ihoir Diseases and Remedies, to which ara 
added Full Directions for the Construction of Hutch(.'s, Riibbitries, &c. , together with 
Recipes for Cooking and Dressing for the Table. Beautifully illustrated. 

BLAKE'S (REV. JOHN L.) FARMER AT HOME, - ... 1 25 
A Family Text Book i-or the Country; beinj? a Cyclopedia 

of Agricultural Implements and Proiluctioiis, and of the nioro important topics in 
Domestic Economy, Science and Literature, adapted to Rural Life. By Rev. Jou.v L. 
Blake, D. D. 

BOUSSINGATJLT'S (J. B.) RURAL ECONOMY, 1 25 

Or, Chemistry Applied to Agriculture ; presenting Distinctly 

and in a Simple Manner the Principles of Farm Ahinagenient, the Preservation and Use of 
Manures, the Nutrition and Food of Animals, and the General Economy of Agriculture. 
The work is the fruit of a long life of study and experiment, and its perusal will aid the 
farnii'r greatly in obtaining a practical and scieutilic knowledge of his profession. 

BROWNE'S AMERICAN BIRD FANCIER, 26 

The Breeding, Rearing, Feeding, Management and Peculi- 

arities of Cage and House Birds. Illustrated with engravings. 

BROWNE'S AMERICAN POULTRY YARD, 1 00 

Comprising the Origin, History and Description of the 

Different Breeds of Domestic Poultry, with Complete Directions for their Breeding, 
Crossing, Rearing, Fattening and Preparation for Market ; including spccitlc directions 
for Caponizing Fowls, and for the Treatment of the I'rincipal Diseases to which they aro 
subject, drawn from authentic sources and personal observation. Illustrated with 
numerous engravings. 

BROWNE'S (D. JAY) FIELD BOOK OF MANURES, - - - - 1 26 
Or, American Muck Book ; Treatiug of the Nature, Properties, 

Sources, History and Operations of all the Principal Fertilizers and Manures in Common 
Use, with specific directions for their Preservation and Application to the Soil and te 
Crops ; drawn from authentic sources, actual experience and personal observation, a8 
combined with the Leading Principles of Praeticii] and Scieutilic Agriculture. 

BRIDGEMAN'S (THOS.) YOUNG GARDENER'S ASSISTANT, - - 1 60 

In Three Parts ; Coiilainiusr Catalogues of Garden and Flower 

Seed, with Practical Directions umku' each head for the Cultivation of Cu nary Vege- 
tables, Flowers, Fruit Trees, the Grape Vine, &c. ; to which is added a Calendar to each 
part, showing the work necessary to bo done in the various departments each mouth 
of the year. One volume octavo. 

BRIDGEMAN'S KITCHEN GARDENER'S INSTRUCTOR, ^ Cloth, 60 

" •• " " Cloth, 60 

Maikd post paid uvon receipt of price. 



Boolcs puhh'shed hy C. M. Saxtox, Barker & (Jo. 

BRIDGEMAN'S FLOBIST'S GUIDE, ...... V, Goth, 60 

" " " Clolh, 60 

BKIDGEMAN'S FKTJIT CTJLTIVATOE'S MAj!J(JAL, >i Cloth, go 

" " ' '• . . Cloth, 60 

BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS, 1 00 

In which are Described all the VAkicus Hardy Herbaceous 

Pereimial?, Annuals, Shrubs, I'lants and Evergrccu Tl■e^s, with Directions for their 
Cultivation. 
BUIST'S (ROBERT) AMERICAN FLOWER GARDEN DIRECTORY, 1 25 
Containing Practical Directions for the Culture of Plants, 

In the Flower Garden, Hothouse, Greenhouse, Rooms or Parlor Windows, for every 
month in the Year ; with a Description of the Plants most desirable in each, the nature 
of the Soil and situation best adapted to their Growth, the Proper Season for Traua- 
plauting, &c. ; with Instructions for erecting a Hothouse, Greeuhonse, and Ljiying cul 
a Flower Garden ; the whole adapted to either Large or Small Gardens, with Instruc- 
tions for Preparing the Soil, Propagati'-.g, Planting, Pruning, Training and Fruiting the 
Grape Vine. 

BUIST'S (ROBERT) FAMILY KITCHEN GARDENER, ... 76 

Containing Plain and Accurate Descriptions of ai.l the 

Iiillereut Species and Varieties of Culinary Vegetables, with their Botanical, English, 
French ami German names, alphabetically arranged, with the Best Mode of Cultivat- 
ing them in the Garden or under Glass ; also Descriptions and Character of the most 
Select Fruits, their Management, Propagation, &c. By Robert BcnsT, author of the 
"American Fiowor Garden Directory," &c. 

CHINESE SUGAR CANE AND SUGAR-MAKING, .... 25 

Its History, Culture and Adaptation to the Soil, Climate 

and Economy of the United States, with an Account of Various Processes of Mauu 
facturing Sugar. Drawn from authentic sourc'S, by Charles F. Siansbury, A. M., late 
Commissioner at the E.xhibition of all Nations at London. 

CHORLTON'S GRAPE-GROWER'S GUIDE, 60 

Intended Especially for the American Climate. Being a 

Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Grape Vine in each department of Hot- 
house, Cold Grapery, Retarding House and Out-door Culture. With Plans for the con- 
struction of the Requisite Buildings, and giving the best methods for Heating the same. 
Every department being fully illustrated. By William Cuorlton. 

COBBETT'S AMERICAN GARDENER, 50 

A Treatise on the Situation, Soil and Layinq-out op Gardens, 

and the Making and Managing of Hotbeds and Greenhouses, and on the Propagation 
and Cultivation of the several sorts of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits and Flowers. 

COTTAGE AND FARM BEE-KEEPER, 60 

A Practical Work, by a Country Curate. 

COLE'S AMERICAN FRUIT BOOK, 50 

Containing Directions for Raising, Pbopaqating and Manao- 

ing Fruit Trees, Shrubs and Plants ; with a Description of the Best Varieties of Fruit, 
including New and Valuable Kinds. 

COLE'S AMERICAN VETERINARIAN, 50 

Containing Diseases of Domestic Animals, their Causes, Symp- 

loins and Remedies ; with Rules for Restoring and Preserving Health by good manage- 
ment ; also for Training and Breeding. 

DADD'S AMERICAN CATTLE DOCTOR, 1 00 

Containing the Necessary Information for Presertino the 

Health and Curing th<! Diseases of Oxen, Cows, Sheep and Swine, with a Great Variety 
of Original Recipes and Valuable Information in reference to Farm and Dairy Manage- 
ment, whereby every Man can be his own Cattle Doctor. The principles taught in this 
work are, thai all Medication shall be subservient to Nature — that all Medicines must be 
sanative in their operation, and administered with a view of aiding the vital powera, 
Instead of dei)res8ing, as heretofore, with the lancet or by poison. By G. H. Dadd, M. i) 
Vetoriuary practitioner. 

Miiled pos' paid upon recfipt of price. 



Books published by C. M. Saxton, Barker & Co. 



DADD'S MODERN HORSE DOCTOR - 1 00 

An American Book for American Farmers; Containing Practi- 
cal Observations on the Causes, Naturo and Troatnipnl of Disease and lAtnoness of 
HorsL's, embracing the Most Recent and Approved Methods, according to an enlightened 
system of Veterinary Practice, for the Preservation and Restoration of Health. With 
illustrations. 

DADD'S ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HORSE, Plain, . 2 00 
" " " " " Colored Plates, 4 00 

With Anatomical and Questional, Illustrations; Containing, 

also, a Series of E.xaminations on Equine Anatomy and Philosophy, with Instructions in 
reference to Dissection and the mode of making Anatomical Preparations : to which ia 
added a Glossary of Veterinary Technicalities, Toxicological Chiart, and Dictionary of 
Veterinary Science. 

DANA'S MTJCK MANTTAL, FOR THE USE OF FARMERS, - - 1 00 

A Treatise on the Physical and Chemical Properties of Soils 

and Chemistry of Manures ; including, al.so, the subject of Composts. Artificial Manures 
and Irrigation. A new edition, with a Chapter on Bones and Superphosphates. 

DANA'S PRIZE ESSAY ON MANURES, 26 

Submitted to the Trustees of the Massachusetts Sociktt for 

Promoting Agriculture, for their Premium. By Sami-el H. Dana. 

DOMESTIC AND ORNAMENTAL POULTRY, Plain Plates, . . . 1 00 
" " " Colored Plates, . - 2 00 

A Treatise on tite History and Management of Ornamental 

and Domestic Poultry. By Rev. EnMUxn Sacl Dixom, A. M.,with large additions by 
J. J. Kerr, M. D. Illustrated with sixty-Qve Original Portraits, engraved expressly for 
this work. Fourth edition, revised. 

DOWNTNG'S (A. J.) LANDSCAPE GARDENING, 3 50 

Revised, Enlarged and Newly Illustrated, by Henry Wi.n- 

throp Siirgent. Tliis Great Work, which has accomplished so much iu elevating the 
American Taste for Rural Improvements, is now rendered doubly interesting and 
valuable by the experience of all the Prominent Cultivators of Ornamental Trees in the 
United States, and by the descriptions of American Places, Private Residences, Central 
Park, New York, Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, and a full account of the Newer Decidu- 
ous and Evergreen Trees and Shrubs. The illustrations of this edition consist of seven 
superb steel plate engravings, by Smii.uk, Hi.vshklwood, Dutoib and others ; besides rme 
humlred engravitigs on xmod awl sforae, of the best American Residences and Parks, with 
Portraits of many New or Remarkable Trees and Shrubs. 

DOWNING'S (A. J.) RURAL ESSAYS, 3 00 

On Horticulture, Landscape Gardening, Rural Architecture, 

Trees, Agriculture, Fruit, with his Letters from England. Edited, with a Memoir of the 
Author, by George Wm. Ci'rtis, and a l^etter to his Friends, by Fredeiuka Bremer, and 
an elegant Steel Portrait of the Author. 

EASTWOOD (B.) ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE CRANBERRY, 50 

With a Description of the Best Varieties. By B. Eastwood, 

" Septimus," of the New York Tribune. Illustrated. 
ELLIOTT'S WESTERN FRUIT BOOK, 1 25 

A New Edition of this Work, Thoroughly Revised. Em- 
bracing all the New and Valuable Fruits, with the I.Atest Improvements in their Cultiva- 
tion, up to January, 1S59. especially adajjted to the wants of Western Fruit Growers ; 
full of excellent illustrations. By F. R. ELUorr, Pomologist, lato of Cleveland. Ohio, now 
of St. lx)uis. 

EVERY LADY HER OWN FLOWER GARDENER, - - - . 60 

Addressed to the Industrious and Econo.mical only ; containing 

simple and practical Direetmns for Cultivating Plants and Flov*ers ; also, Hints for tha 
Management of Flowers in Rooms, with brief Botanical De.scriptions of Plant* aad 
Flowers. The whole iu jilain and simple language. By Looisa Johnsos. 

Maile-l post mid upon -ecript of price. 



Books puhlished by C. M. Saxton, Barker & Co. 5 

FASM DRAINAGE, 1 00 

The Principles, Processes and Effects of Draining Land, 

with Stoues, Wood, Drain-plows, Open Ditches, and especially with Tili'S ; iucludiiig 
Tables of Rainfall, Evaporation, Filtration, Excavation, capacity of I'ipis, cost and nnni- 
ber to the acre. With more than 100 illustrations. By the Hon. Henry F. Fke-NOI, of 
New Hampshire. 

FESSENDEN'S (T. G.) AMEKICAN KITCHEN GAEDENES, - - 50 

Containing Directions for the Cultivation of Vegetables and 

Garden Fruits. Cloth. 

rESSENDEN'S COMPLETE FABMEB AND AMERICAN GASDENES, 1 25 

Rural Economist and New American Gardener ; Containing 

a Compendious Epitome of the most Importiint Branches of Agriculture and Rural 
Economy ; with Practical Directions on the Cultivation of Fruits and Vegetables, includ- 
ing Landscape and Ornamental Gardening. By Tnoius G. Febsenden. 2 vols, in 1 . 

FIELD'S PEAE CULTTHIE, 1 00 

The Pear Garden ; or, a Treatise on the Propagation and 

Cultivation of the Pear Tree, with Instructions for its Manaijemeut from the Seedling to 
the Bearing Tree. By Thomas W. Field. 

FISH CTILTIIILE, 100 

A Treatise on the Artificial Propagation of Fish, and the 

Construction of Ponds, with the Description and Habits of such kinds of Fish as are most 
suitable for Pisciculture. By T'heodatu8Gakuck,M. D. , Vice-President of the Cleveland 

Academv of Nat. fcionco. 

FLINT ON GRASSES, 1 25 

A Practical Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants ; Com- 
prising their Natural History, Comparative Nutritive Value, Methods of Cultivation, Cut- 
ting, Curing and the Management of Grass Lands. By Charles L. Flint, A. M.. Sccrp.. 
tary of the Mass. State Board of Agriculture. 

GUENON ON MILCH COWS, 60 

A Treatise on Milch Cows, whereby the Quality and Quantity of 

Milk which any Cow will give may bo accurately determined by observing Natural 
Marks or External Indications alone ; the length of time she will continue to give Milk, 
&c., &c. By M. Francis Guenon, of Libourue, France. Translated by Nichohs P. 
Trist, Esq. ; with Introduction, Remarks and Observations on the Cow and the Dairy, 
by John S. Skinner. Illustrated with numerous Engravings. Neatly done up in paper 
covers, 37 cts. 

HERBERT'S HINTS TO HORSE-KEEPERS, 1 25 

Complete Manual for Horsemen ; Embracing : 

How to Breed a Horse. How to Physio a Horse. 

How to Buy a Horse. (Allopathy a.nd Homceopatht 

How to Break a Horse. How to Groom a Horse. 

How to Use a Horse. How to Drive a Horse. 

How to Feed a Horse. How to Ride a Horse. 

And Chapters on Mules and Ponies. By the late Henry Wiluam Herbert (Frank 
Forrester) ; with additions, including Raret's Method of Horse Taming, and BAUciiER'i 
System of Horsejianshif ; also, giving directions for the Selection and Care of Carriages 
and Harness of every description, from the City " Turn Out" to the Farmer's '' Gear," 
and a Biography of the eccentric Author. Illustrated throughout. 

HOOPER'S DOG AND GTIN, 50 

A Few Loose Chapters on Shooting, among which will bo 

found some Anecdotes and Incidents ; also Instructions for Dog Breaking, and interest 
ing letters from Sportsmen. L'y A Cad Shot. 

HYDE'S CHINESE SUGAR CANE, 21 

Containing its History, Mode of Culture, Manufacture of 

the Sugar, &c. ; with Reports of its success in different parts of the United State*. 
Miih'^1 )iO!^t paid wpon r/sript of price. 



6 h'aoks puhlislicd 1)1/ C. ^r. Saxton, Barker & Co. 

JOHNSTON'S (JAMES F. Wj AGKICULTUEAL CHEMISTR"i, - 1 25 

Lectur'='s on the Application of . Chemistry and Geology to 

Ag'-ionltiin'". Now Ivlition, w:tli an Appcixlix, cont;iiniiiji the Author's Experiments id 
Practical Agriculture. 

JOHNSTONS (J F. W.) ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTUKAL CHEM- 

ISTEY AND GEOLOGY, 1 00 

With a Complete Analytical and Alphabetical Index, and an 

American Prel'ace. By Hun. Siski.n Brown-, Editor of the '• New England Farmer." 

OHNSTON'S (J. F. W.) CATECHISM OF AGRICULTURAL CHEM- 
ISTRY AND GEOLOGY, 26 

By James F. W. Johnston, Honorary Member of the Koyal 

Agricultural Society of England, and author of " Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry 
and Geology." With an Introduction by Joh.v Pitki.v Norton, M. A., late Professor ov 
Scientific Agriculture in Yale College. With Notes and Additions by th(. Author, pre- 
pared expressly for this edition, and an ApiK'udix compiled by the Superintendent of 
Education in Nova Scotia. Adapted to the use of Schools. 

L&NGSTROTH (REV. L. L.) ON TEE HIVE AND HONEY BEE, - 1 28 

A Practicai. Treatise on the Hive and Honey Bee, Third 

edition, enlarged and illustrated tvith numerous eng racings. This Work is, without a 
doubt, the best work on the Bee published in any languajtc, whether wo consider its 
scientific accuracy, the practical instructions it contains, or the beauty and completeness 
of its illustrations. 

LEUCHARS' HOW TO BUILD AND VENTILATE HOTHOUSES, - 1 2S 

A Practical Tre.\tise on the Construction, Heating and 

Ventilation of Hothouses, including Conservatories, Greenhouses, Graperies and other 
kinds of Horticultural Structures ; with Practical Directions for their Management, in 
regard to Light, Heat and Air. Illustrated with numerous engravings. By P. B. 
LKnniAR.^, Garden Architect. 

LIEBIG'S (JUSTUS) FAMILIAR LECTURES ON CHEMISTRY, - 60 

And its rei-ation to Commerce, Physiology, and Agriculture. 

Edited by Jon.s (Jakdexkr, Jl. P., 

LINSLEY'S MORGAN HORSES, .... . . . . i qo 

A Premium Essay on the Origin, History, and Characteristics 

of this remarkable American Breed of Horses ; tracing the Pedigree from the originai 
Justin Morgan, through the most noted of his progeny, down to the present time. 
With numerous portraits. To which are added Hints for Breeding, Breaking and Gene- 
ral Use and Management of Horses, with practical Directions for Training them for 
Exhibition at Agricultural Fairs. By D. C, Linsiet, Editor of the American Stock 
Journiil. 

MOORE'S RURAL HAND BOOKS, 1 26 

First Series, containing Treatises on — 
TitE Horse, The Pests of the Farm, 

The Hog, Domestic Fowls, and 

The Honey Bee, The Cow. 

Second Series, containing — .... 1 25 

Emrt Lady her own Flower Gardener, EsiSAT on Manures, 
•siiMEifTS OF Agriculture, American Kitchen Gardener, 

Bird Fancier, American Rose Culturist. 

Third Series, containing — 1 25 

Mius ON the Horse's Foot, Vine-Dre-sser's Manual, 

Tiik RABBrr Fanqer, Bee- Keeper's Chart, 

Weeks on Bees, Chemistry Made F^ast. 

Fourth Series, containing — - ... I 26 

I'ixsoz ON THE Vine, Hooper's Dog and Gun, 

LmsiG's Faiuliar Lfiteks, Skillful HousEwmc, 

Browne's Memoirs of Lndian Corn. 

Mailed post paid xipon receipt of price. 



